FCC Investigates The View Over Talarico Interview

The Catalyst

On February 7, 2026, the FCC sent a formal letter of inquiry to ABC regarding James Talarico’s appearance on “The View.” This was the first concrete enforcement action under Carr’s January 21 equal time guidance.

The Domino Effect

The View investigation was the proximate cause of the Colbert censorship. When CBS lawyers saw that the FCC was investigating ABC over a Talarico interview, they preemptively told Colbert he could not broadcast his own planned interview with the same candidate.

The sequence reveals the mechanism: Carr didn’t need to order CBS to censor Colbert. He needed only to investigate ABC over a similar interview, and CBS’s lawyers — keenly aware of Paramount’s pending regulatory business — did the rest.