Late night comedian Stephen Colbert called out his network, CBS, saying it blocked him from broadcasting an interview with a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate over the Trump administration’s controversial enforcement of its equal-time rules.

During Stephen Colbert’s Monday night monologue on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Colbert carried on per usual, introducing the Late Show Band and his guest Jennifer Garner. He then posed the question, “You know who is not one of my guests tonight?”

The late-night host was meant to have Texas state Rep. James Talarico on the show. But he said on air that he was “told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”

He continued on to explain the FCC’s proposed new guidance for equal-time rules under its chairman, Brendan Carr. The rules require broadcasters who feature political candidates to provide the same time to their rivals, if requested.

Typically, news content on daytime and late-night talk shows has been excluded from these regulations, as it has been an informal tradition for presidential candidates to make their rounds on various late-night shows.

But the FCC under Carr — who has made no secret of his intention to carry out an agenda that is aligned with President Trump’s wishes — has questioned whether late-night and daytime talk shows deserve an exemption from the equal-time rules for broadcast stations using the public airwaves.

Many legal and media experts have said a stricter application of the rule would be hard to enforce and could stifle free speech.

“Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV,” Colbert said Monday night.

CBS disputed Colbert’s claims that it prohibited the segment from airing “The Late Show’s” interview with Talarico.

“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” wrote a CBS spokesperson. “ ‘The Late Show’ decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

Earlier this year, ABC’s “The View” featured Talarico as well as his main rival, fellow Democrat Jasmine Crockett. Talarico is currently facing off with Crockett and Ahmad Hassan in the Democratic primary for one of Texas’ two seats in the U.S. Senate. The FCC is also reportedly investigating his appearance on “The View.”

Experts consider the equal-time rule to be antiquated, designed for a time when consumers were limited to a handful of TV channels and a dozen radio stations if they lived in a big city.

The emergence of cable, podcasts and streaming audio and video platforms — none of which are subject to FCC restrictions in terms of content — have greatly diminished traditional broadcast media’s dominance in the marketplace.

Carr has previously suggested that if TV hosts want to include political candidates in their programming, they can do it — just not on broadcast TV.

Colbert said he was taking Carr’s “advice” and revealed that his entire interview with Talarico was instead uploaded on YouTube. During the interview, Talarico calls out the Republican Party for initially running against “cancel culture.”

“Now they are trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top,” Talarico said. “They went after ‘The View’ because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn’t like. They went after you for telling the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump.”

Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last fall after Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of ABC affiliates, said they would not air the talk series because of comments Kimmel made about the suspect in the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is leaving the air come May, signaling the end of CBS’ long-standing relationship with the late-night talk show. Its cancellation was a “purely financial decision,” according to CBS.

But it also came at a time when Paramount Global, which owns CBS, was seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration to sell itself to Skydance Media. The merger was finalized in August.

CBS drew scrutiny over its decision to settle a lawsuit Trump filed against CBS News over edits made to a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the race for the White House.

The suit was settled for $16 million even though most First Amendment experts believed Trump’s claims were frivolous. But getting past the complaint without a lengthy trial was seen as necessary by former CBS News parent Paramount Global to assure regulatory clearance of its merger with Skydance Media.

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Vince Offer Shlomi, more commonly known to the masses as the “ShamWow Guy,” is running for Congress in Texas as an anti-establishment Republican vowing to “clean the swamp.”

If elected, Shlomi, who is beloved for his high-energy late-night ShamWow and “Slap Chop” commercials, has said he will “destroy wokeism,” quipping on his campaign website, “This woke mess won’t clean itself.”

In a recent ad, Shlomi, 61, knocked 84-year-old incumbent Republican Rep. John Carter’s cognitive ability as “worse than Biden,” saying, “vote for me, a guy who’s not half dead.”

Despite President Donald Trump endorsing Carter for re-election, Shlomi believes he would be a better ally in Congress for the president. He suggested Carter is no longer up for the job, likening his continued presence in the House of Representatives to a form of elder abuse.

“He’s not a fighter,” said Shlomi, adding, “It’s not that he’s old, but his capacity is lacking and Trump doesn’t know that.”

TEXAS DEMOCRAT BLASTED FOR TELLING LATINO, BLACK, ASIAN PEOPLE TO UNITE AGAINST ‘OPPRESSOR,’ ‘TAKE OVER’ US

After years in the media world, Shlomi said he decided to break into politics after “seeing the decline of the civilization.”

“I’m seeing people not standing up to things. Not thinking about God … kind of afraid, they’re kind of intimidated, walking on eggshells,” he explained. “I feel that we need to fight a little bit stronger on just the commonsense American value ideas.”

“I want to bring wholesomeness back to America,” he said.

He also framed his candidacy as standing up to the GOP establishment, something he believes has already put a target on his back.

He believes that “someone” in the GOP deleted his nickname from the ballot to reduce his name recognition. Candidates using nicknames on the ballot is very common but nicknames tied to brand names or products are rarer.

CONSERVATIVE FIREBRAND VOWS TO PURGE ‘RINOS’ IN BATTLE TO REPLACE RETIRING VERN BUCHANAN IN OPEN FLORIDA SEAT

“I think they’re trying to hoodwink the voters from not knowing who I am,” said Shlomi, adding, “Honestly, it’s a swampy move, and that’s one of the things I’ll be working on when I get to Congress.”

Though describing his election effort as an “uphill battle,” Shlomi said he believes it is part of a “higher purpose.”

“The bottom line is I want to help clean the swamp,” he said. “I’ve just seen the world, I’m looking at athletes, and they’re not standing up for kids, or standing up for girls, and they just go with whatever pays the most money. So, I just thought, you know what? I’m not a brave person, but I just can’t let this happen.”

TURNING POINT ISSUES MAJOR ENDORSEMENT IN CRITICAL SENATE RACE AS TRUMP HINTS AT WEIGHING IN

Regarding Shlomi’s ballot name, Abraham George, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, told Fox News Digital that “the National Republican Congressional Committee challenged Mr. Shlomi’s ballot nickname – ‘ShamWow’” and “after considering the law, including Texas Election Code section 52.031, the Republican Party of Texas determined that this challenge was well taken and Mr. Shlomi’s ballot nickname was eliminated. Nicknames that indicate an economic affiliation are impermissible by law.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Carter’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Warner Bros. Discovery is cracking open the door to allow spurned bidder, Paramount Skydance, to make its case — but Warner’s board still maintains its preference for Netflix’s competing proposal.

Warner’s move to reopen talks comes after weeks of pressure from Paramount, which submitted an enhanced offer to buy Warner last week. Paramount’s willingness to increase its offer late in the auction attracted the attention of some Warner investors.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery responded with a letter to Paramount Chairman David Ellison and others on Paramount’s board, giving the group seven days to “clarify your proposal.”

“We seek your best and final proposal,” Warner board members wrote. Warner set a Feb. 23 deadline for Paramount to comply.

The closely watched sale of the century-old Warner Bros., known for “Batman,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Casablanca,” and HBO, the home of “Game of Thrones” and “Succession,” is expected to reshape Hollywood.

The flurry of activity comes as Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix are seeking to enter the home stretch of the auction. Warner separately issued its proxy and set a special March 20 meeting of its shareholders to decide the company’s fate.

Warner Bros. Discovery is recommending that its stockholders approve the $82.7-billion Netflix deal.

“We continue to believe the Netflix merger is in the best interests of WBD shareholders due to the tremendous value it provides, our clear path to achieve regulatory approval and the transaction’s protections for shareholders against downside risk,” Warner Chairman Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., said in a Tuesday statement.

Still, the maneuver essentially reopens the talks.

Warner Bros. is creating an opportunity for Paramount to sway Warner board members, which could perhaps prompt Netflix to raise its $27.75 a share offer for Warner’s Burbank-based studios, vast library of programming, HBO and streaming service HBO Max.

Netflix is not interested in buying Warner Bros. Discovery’s basic cable channels, including CNN, TBS, HGTV and Animal Planet, which are set to be spun off to a stand-alone company later this year.

In contrast, Paramount wants to buy the entire company and has offered more than $30 a share.

Last week, Paramount sweetened its bid for Warner, adding a $2.8-billion “break fee” that Warner would have to pay Netflix if the company pulled the plug on that deal. Paramount also said it would pay Warner investors a “ticking fee” of 25 cents a share for every quarter after Jan. 1 that the deal does not close.

“While we have tried to be as constructive as possible in formulating these solutions, several of these items would benefit from collaborative discussion to finalize,” Paramount said last week as it angled for a chance to make its case. “We will work with you to refine these solutions to ensure they address any and all of your concerns.”

Netflix agreed to give Warner Bros. Discovery a temporary waiver from its merger agreement to allow Warner Bros. Discovery to reengage with Paramount, which lost the bidding war on Dec. 4.

“We granted WBD a narrow seven-day waiver of certain obligations under our merger agreement to allow them to engage with PSKY to fully and finally resolve this matter,” Netflix said Tuesday in a statement. “This does not change the fact that we have the only signed, board-recommended
agreement with WBD, and ours is the only certain path to delivering value to WBD’s stockholders.”

Netflix has matching rights for any improved Paramount offer. The company renewed its confidence in its deal and its prospect to win regulatory approval.

“PSKY has repeatedly mischaracterized the regulatory review process by suggesting its proposal will sail through, misleading WBD stockholders about the real risk of their regulatory challenges around the world,” Netflix said in its statement. “WBD stockholders should not be misled into thinking that PSKY has an easier or faster path to regulatory approval – it does not.”

Warner Bros. Discovery acknowledged that Paramount’s recent modification “addresses some of the concerns that WBD had identified several months ago,” according to the letter to Paramount.

But Warner Bros. Discovery added Paramount’s offer “still contains many of the unfavorable terms and conditions that were in the draft agreements … and twice unanimously rejected by our Board,” Warner Bros. Discovery said.

Warner’s board told Paramount it will “welcome the opportunity to engage” during the seven-day negotiation period.

Paramount has been pursuing the prized assets since last September.

“Every step of the way, we have provided PSKY with clear direction on the deficiencies in their offers and opportunities to address them,” Warner Chief Executive David Zaslav said in a statement. “We are engaging with PSKY now to determine whether they can deliver an actionable, binding proposal that provides superior value and certainty for WBD shareholders.”