The F.C.C. is using a century-old broadcast rule to take aim at hosts like Stephen Colbert. The impact could reshape how talk shows handle politics.

The Republican-led FCC last month indicated some daytime and late-night talk shows might no longer automatically qualify as “bona fide” news programs, arguing that many function primarily as

Brendan Carr has said the equal-time rule is "about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections."

In September of last year, late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel found himself thrust into the spotlight — one that reached far beyond his studio stage.

Stephen Colbert spotlighted Punch, the baby monkey abandoned by his mother, and even brought the same IKEA stuffed toy onstage during his monologue.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the entertainer Kid Rock collaborated for a “Make America Healthy” video posted to X on Tuesday. Stephen Colbert called the 90-second clip reel of the two working out “an unexpected offering” and “pure cinema” on Wednesday’s “Late Night.”

A recent FCC inquiry to ABC about a possible “equal time” rule violation at “The View” raised concerns at CBS that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” could be targeted next, according to people familiar with CBS’s deliberations.

CBS said it did not force “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to pull an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico from its TV broadcast Monday, contrary to the way the late-night host had framed it.