Colbert kicked off Monday's episode of "The Late Show" by saying that the network's lawyers told him he could not have Texas state Rep. James Talarico on the broadcast.
Unfortunately the chilling effect is still, erm, effective. A few thousand might see it instead of a few million. The political weaponization of the FCC has been devastating overall.
I would never have seen it, I don’t really watch network television. I bet there are a lot of Texans that also wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. This is a great thing.
Looking through the youtube channel, the average uploaded video over the last couple weeks has ~600,000 views. The biggest one scrolling down was almost 2 weeks ago with 2.5 million views as of now. Of course it’s not all one to one, but assuming no crossover between youtube and TV viewers, this interview would have to hit at least 3-3.5 million views to be more popular than the average segment, and higher than 5 million views to absolutely guarantee that it is more popular than an already popular segment.
At time of writing the interview has 2.3 million views after 16 hours, almost matching the TV audience for an episode, matching an 11 day popular video, and I’m about to add one more to the count which I normally wouldn’t. You can hold your belief if you want, but I am curious to see how it pans out over the next week or two.
My thought is that it’s part of the enforcement of that ‘fair time’ bullshit. They’re covering their asses in case they haven’t allowed enough ‘conservative candidates’ similar time on air
Here’s the interview that they weren’t allowed to air. The Streisand Effect is strong here.
Holy fuck, I can see why trump doesn’t want this shown. He’s a Christian that is the opposite of trump and a great speaker.
Unfortunately the chilling effect is still, erm, effective. A few thousand might see it instead of a few million. The political weaponization of the FCC has been devastating overall.
His youtube views are already over 1 million.
Over 2 million now a few hours later. Streisand Effect in full force.
Almost half way to 4 now
I’m glad to hear it. I still think the blackout will be a net loss to viewership.
Edit: I was quite wrong about this and couldn’t be happier
I would never have seen it, I don’t really watch network television. I bet there are a lot of Texans that also wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. This is a great thing.
Well let’s get some data involved then. According to this article from mid last year, The Late Show was averaging ~2.5 million viewers in the Nielsen ratings: https://www.tvinsider.com/1202434/late-night-ratings-2025-gutfeld-kimmel-colbert-fallon/
Looking through the youtube channel, the average uploaded video over the last couple weeks has ~600,000 views. The biggest one scrolling down was almost 2 weeks ago with 2.5 million views as of now. Of course it’s not all one to one, but assuming no crossover between youtube and TV viewers, this interview would have to hit at least 3-3.5 million views to be more popular than the average segment, and higher than 5 million views to absolutely guarantee that it is more popular than an already popular segment.
At time of writing the interview has 2.3 million views after 16 hours, almost matching the TV audience for an episode, matching an 11 day popular video, and I’m about to add one more to the count which I normally wouldn’t. You can hold your belief if you want, but I am curious to see how it pans out over the next week or two.
3 hours after your post, up to 3.4 million views. Just for people scrolling through these comments to see.
Why would the FCC have anything to say about the content of this incredibly tame interview?
My thought is that it’s part of the enforcement of that ‘fair time’ bullshit. They’re covering their asses in case they haven’t allowed enough ‘conservative candidates’ similar time on air