The FCC has been brought up a lot lately when it has come to both daytime and late night shows. Some common programs that have been cited for incidents include Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the recently canceled Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the daytime program The View, the latter of which has been known for touching on hot button topics for years. As the conversation continues, The View is back in the limelight thanks to a committee weighing in on the equal time rule. Why One Group Thinks The View Should Be Exempt From The Equal Time RuleThe Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press is a non-profit organization that advocates for freedom of the press, as they put it, to “protect democracy.” Recently, they weighed in on The View situation. The View came under fire by the FCC months ago for potential violations of the equal time rule, which states that broadcasts must give equal time to candidates of both parties gunning for the same office. The rule has been in effect for a long time, but has mostly operated under a news assumption, meaning daytime TV shows and late night have previously enjoyed more freedoms when it came to extending invites to individuals on their shows. The FCC under the Trump administration has been critical of this, and has opened up several investigations and suits. When it comes to The View, however, ABC has pushed back and has been running ads since June asking viewers to support the longtime series, which famously features a slew of panelists across a range of political spectrums. It’s because of this the Reporters Committee feels the show should be exempt. In a letter, the organization said that exemptions that were made to the rule way back in 1959 should apply, and latitude should be given to The View, which covers a wide range of topics, and not just politics in an “on-the-spot” manner.Requiring any informational program like The View to afford dozens of candidates equal time simply to interview a single candidate is not feasible and would chill political news coverage. Journalists and editors — not Commissioners or elected officials — are in the best position to determine which interviews are newsworthy. The FCC should continue to defer to their judgment regarding candidate interviews and political speech more broadly.It’s unclear where the investigation into The View will go, but you can read the full letter if you are interested in diving further into the topic. Meanwhile, The View is not the only show that has been in hot water in recent months.(Image credit: Disney/Mark Seliger))What Happened With Jimmy Kimmel And Stephen ColbertIt’s not The View but Jimmy Kimmel that has landed the most headlines when it comes to the FCC under the Trump administration. The late night host was actually suspended on the very same network as The View after making comments on air about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. This wasn’t the first time Kimmel made comments that landed him in hot water either. However, this time his comments led to ire from the White House and ABC ultimately cutting the late night host from the schedule for a while in order to cool things down… but then the FCC got involved. Back in January of 2026, the FCC marked its intention to bring back the old Equal Time Rule leading to lively commentary from then still-on-air host Stephen Colbert. Around that time, the agency headed up by Brendan Carr also became a bit of a bee in ABC’s bonnet, forcing Disney to apply for licenses to all eight stations the corporation owns.It’s not just ABC that dealt with the FCC poking its nose in. Stephen Colbert before his exit had expected to interview Texas Representative James Talarico. In this case the FCC invoked the equal time rule and the already-taped interview was cancelled. Colbert later revealed exactly what happened on air and the story blew up. This actually led to more attention for Talarico, so I'm not sure it all played out how the FCC expected. This is all to say, this is very much an ongoing situation, and a lot of programs that have seemingly been exempted from this sort of rule in the past are being targeted now. We'll have to see how it plays out at The View, but I'm very confident there will be new wrinkles in the coming months.