Stephen Colbert grows furious after interview was blocked

Stephen Colbert is speaking out against his home network CBS for what he says was their decision to pull the plug on his interview with Rep. James Talarico from the Democratic Party.

The Late Show host says he was caught unaware of the decision. But the network says they did not block the interview; instead, they merely gave legal guidance about the show potentially triggering the FCC's equal-time rule, which states the networks should give equal airtime to both sides of the aisle.

“Without ever talking to me, the corporation put out this press release,” the late-night host says, adding, “This statement, it’s a surprisingly small piece of paper considering how many butts it’s trying to cover," adding it read like it was “written by and, I’m guessing, for lawyers.” 

Colbert also raised concerns for free speech after stating CBS lawyers read the script before the show's airing, even handing out more than notes on how he can and can't talk about the show.

“So I don’t know what this is about. For the record, I’m not even mad. I really don’t want an adversarial relationship with the network."

“As I said last night, in my interview with James Talarico — check it out, it’s on YouTube, it’s pretty good — I said to him I’m grateful to have worked at CBS for the last 11 years and worked with George [Cheeks] and David [Stapf] and Amy [Reisenbach] and everyone at the network, the Sheldons of every age, the Matlocks of every ***."

"I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies," Colbert concludes.