Media Matters: TV talk under FCC surveillance

This week Dianna and I celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary, coinciding with the end of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The demise of  “The Late Show” made me think back on all the evening talk shows we watched over six decades. First, it was NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” starring Johnny Carson, who retired on May 22, 1992 – on our 21st anniversary.

Back then, “The Tonight Show” – now in its 72nd year – provided some comic relief at the end of the day for millions of Americans. 

After Carson, we remained loyal to David Letterman, who hosted “Late Night” beginning in 1982, an NBC talk show that followed Carson. We stayed up late in those days.  

When “The Tonight Show” gig went to Jay Leno in 1992, CBS hired Letterman to start “The Late Show” in 1993. Along with Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” (on cable’s Comedy Central), Letterman became our evening ritual. He was edgier and funnier than other late night hosts. He once tried to deliver a fruit basket to General Electric headquarters after its 1986 acquisition of NBC. GE security guards turned him away. 

What’s happening these days to TV talk shows and late night comedy is not funny. 

When Skydance Media purchased CBS last year, rumors abounded that Federal Communications Commission approval would depend on the eventual termination of Colbert and/or “The Late Show.” As the New York Times recounts, “President Trump’s wide-ranging campaign to punish his perceived media critics has come for newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register and The New York Times; broadcast outlets like the BBC, NBC News and CBS News; and the late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.” 

Forbes magazine recently looked at audience numbers for late night television. All network programs, by the way, have faced substantial declines in viewers since the arrival of streaming services and social media. “ABC’s longstanding show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ lost about 13% of its audience in the last 10 years (from 2.3 million to 2 million in 2025),” Forbes reports. “CBS’s ‘Late Show,’ which Stephen Colbert took over in 2015, managed the smallest drop of its peers with a decline of 2.75 million viewers in its first season to 2.5 million (or 9%) in 2025.”

Forbes also noted that “NBC has been the biggest loser of late night audiences over the last decade.” Jimmy Fallon’s average “Tonight Show” audience had fallen 64% – from 3.6 million viewers in the 2015-16 TV season to 1.3 million today. By comparison, Johnny Carson's audience averaged over 15 million and his 1992 farewell show drew over 50 million viewers. 

Although SNL’s “Weekend Update” routinely lampoons the president, the FCC has not threatened NBC’s broadcast licenses. Jimmy Fallon, of course, is not a political satirist like Kimmel and Colbert. And Donald Trump did become a TV star on NBC, hosting “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” for more than a decade. 

My brother-in-law, Jim Shaw, who worked for 12 years as a newspaper columnist in Fargo, North Dakota, has also written about the assault on satire that the networks faced this past year. In a recent column, he noted: “Fortunately, even some Trump loyalists can see what’s going on. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz said, ‘It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police.’ Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul told Politico, ‘The federal government and the FCC shouldn’t be involved with regulating humor.’”

Ironically, as reported by the Columbia Journalism Review, Jim and two other part-time writers were recently fired as columnists for the Fargo Forum, North Dakota’s largest newspaper – for criticizing Trump-supported legislation. Within a week, Jim was hired by KFGO, a Fargo radio station. Before the column, he worked for 21 years as a reporter and news director for WDAY-TV (owned by Forum Communications), before serious health issues forced him to quit.

The FCC has recently widened its net, now going after ABC’s 29-year-old daytime talk show, “The View.” The NewYork Times reports that the FCC “has been quietly investigating the program for months, looking into whether ‘The View’ violated old federal rules requiring equal airtime to rival political candidates.” ABC’s lawyers point out that “The View,” like other news and entertainment programs, received an FCC exemption from the old equal-time rules more than two decades ago.  

The FCC probe, the Times points out, “could also feed into the agency’s wider review of whether ABC, owned by Disney, should be allowed to continue to own some of the country’s most important local television stations.”

Meanwhile, Disney/ABC has decided to fight back, filing a complaint with the FCC. We should expect a long-running, high-stakes TV drama playing out between the network and the administration. According to the Times, ABC argues that an FCC ruling against the network could have “a chilling effect on First Amendment-protected free speech on the eve of the 2026 elections” and “affect which political guests – if any – talk shows will book.” 

Since Letterman’s retirement in May 2015, our late-night talk show viewing has waned. We just can’t stay awake that late anymore.

Nowadays Dianna and I end most evenings streaming an episode of “Would I Lie To You?” with 17 seasons available through Britbox. This terrific BBC One improv/panel show stars British comedians David Mitchell and Lee Mack, host Rob Brydon and a variety of guests – from actors to athletes, priests to politicians. 

It sometimes helps to laugh at the end of a day. 

NOTE: I want to acknowledge Dianna Campbell, who is first editor on all my columns for the OFP, pointing out bad transitions, sketchy organization, and better word choices.  Thanks, sweetheart, and happy anniversary!

Richard Campbell is a professor emeritus and founding chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film at Miami University. He is also a co-founder of the Oxford Free Press.