“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday slammed CBS and its attorneys for releasing what he called a “crap” statement about his show.
Then, he treated the statement like actual crap: He picked it up in a dog waste bag and carefully disposed of it.
Colbert earlier this week interviewed Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), but CBS told him he couldn’t air the segment without offering equal time to Talarico’s rivals in the state’s U.S. Senate primary.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr last month threatened to enforce equal-time regulations for TV talk shows, which have long been exempt from those rules.
“He issued a letter saying he was thinking about getting rid of that talk show exception,” Colbert said on Tuesday, then called out the network for playing along: “He had not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him.”
The audience jeered the mention of CBS, which earlier in the day released a statement disputing Colbert’s version of events.
“Without ever talking to me, the corporation put out this press release, this statement,” Colbert said, holding the document up for his audience. “This is a surprisingly small piece of paper considering how many butts it’s trying to cover.”
He was baffled by the statement given that nothing in his segment on Monday should have come as a surprise to the network or its attorneys.
“They know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS’s lawyers, who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air,” he said.
In fact, the attorneys even contacted him as Monday’s show was being recorded.
“I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers, something that had never ever happened before,” he said. “And they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal-time exception, and I used that language. So, I don’t know what this is about.”
Colbert said he’s not mad, and doesn’t want an adversarial relationship with the network, which has announced that “The Late Show” will be canceled in May.
But he did sound disappointed.
“I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies,” he said.
Check out his full segment below. The interview with Talarico that started this whole battle is available on YouTube, where it has racked up millions of views.
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