After Stephen Colbert revealed Monday night that CBS lawyers blocked a scheduled interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico over FCC concerns, you might be wondering whether Jon Ossoff’s planned appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this Wednesday night is headed for a similar fate.
It doesn’t appear to be—even though Ossoff has announced that he’s running for re-election in Georgia, where he has served as a U.S. senator since 2021.
The reason lies in a single phrase from Section 315 of the Communications Act: “legally qualified candidate.”
The FCC’s equal opportunities rule kicks in only when a legally qualified candidate for public office is given airtime.
In Georgia, the official qualifying window for this year’s primary elections doesn’t open until March 2 and runs through March 6. During that period, candidates must complete the required filings and pay the state’s qualifying fee before they are recognized as candidates under the law.
That distinction matters more this year than it has in decades.
In January, the FCC issued new guidance to broadcasters that they should no longer assume late-night and daytime talk shows qualify for the long-standing “bona fide news” exemptions that have shielded them from equal time obligations since the 1990s. The agency—under the leadership of Trump-allied chair Brendan Carr—indicated that future appearances by active candidates could require stations to log the airtime and stand ready to provide equal opportunities to opponents.
But the trigger still begins with candidate status. No legally qualified candidate, no equal time obligation.
A similar scenario played out last month when Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro appeared on Colbert before completing his state’s filing requirements. Despite having launched his campaign publicly, he had not yet crossed the legal threshold that activates Section 315.
Ossoff is in the same pre-filing window now. By contrast, Texas’s filing period—where James Talarico is running for Senate—closed on December 10, 2025.
Once Georgia’s qualifying period closes and Ossoff becomes an official candidate under state law, a similar late-night booking would enter more complicated territory under the FCC’s sharpened scrutiny. For now, though, this week’s appearance doesn’t test the rule so much as sit just outside it.
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