Hilarious new rule that could finally force The View to have equal balance of liberal and conservative guests
Talk shows could soon be forced to have an equal balance of liberal and conservative guests after a 92-year-old TV rule was changed.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the change on Wednesday.
The FCC's 'equal opportunities' or 'equal time' rule has been in place since 1934, when Congress put protections in place to ensure equal access to broadcast stations.
Shows like The View, The Tonight Show, The Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! have had exemptions to the rule as they were previously classified as newcasts. However, those exemptions have now been removed.
Programs that want to keep their exemptions will have an opportunity to file a petition.
'In the meantime, the [FCC] Media Bureau encourages all television broadcast stations to ensure that they are making all appropriate equal opportunity filings in accordance with... the FCC's rules and as required by agency precedent,' the agency said in a statement.
'It is important that both broadcasters and legally qualified candidates understand the FCC's equal opportunities regulations and how they can result in broadcasters offering opposing legal qualified candidates comparable air time and placement.'
The View welcomed Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene to the show in October, months after a study from Media Research Center's NewsBusters found the program featured almost no right-wing guests in 2025.
Talk shows could soon be forced to have an equal balance of liberal and conservative guests after a 92-year-old TV rule was changed
The FCC's 'equal opportunities' or 'equal time' rule has been in place since 1934. Pictured: FCC chairman Brendan Carr
Guests included former President Joe Biden, rising Congressional Democrat Jasmine Crockett, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, and Elissa Slotkin.
A small amount of right-leaning guests, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kelsey Grammer, were not counted since their segments did not touch on politics.
'The View has undergone some major changes since last year which proves it has gotten more extreme,' the media analyst who did the research, Media Research Center's NewsBusters' Nick Fondacaro, told Daily Mail in August.
'Prior to their winter break, the cast would defend and praise their reliance on legal notes, only to abandon the practice altogether in the latter half of the season.
'Meanwhile, they’ve gotten more comfortable with making wild, unsubstantiated actuations in the early months of the second Trump administration, which seem to not ruffle feathers in ABC’s Standards and Practices division.'
He added how longtime Executive Producer Brian Teta has repeatedly 'defended the show’s biases and legal notes by arguing it functions like the editorial pages of a newspaper.
'But even newspapers have editorial standards that keep them from saying some of the unhinged things that The View has said this year,' he said at the time.
Both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, have faced threats from the administration and FCC's Chairman Brendan Carr for months.
The View welcomed firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to the show in October
Shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be affected by the reinstated guidance, due to the topics commonly touched on by guests
Colbert's show will air its final episode in May - a cancelation some have claimed is a form of political retribution after Colbert slammed a settlement Paramount reached with Donald Trump over the summer as 'a big, fat bribe', since a stamp of approval from the FCC for its since-solidified merger with Skydance came shortly after.
The $16million settlement was seen by many as necessary to earn the Trump administration's approval of the merger. Paramount - CBS's parent company - is now led by 42-year-old David Ellison, son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison.
Colbert, along with Kimmel, is one of Trump's fiercest critics. Both regularly welcome progressives and few Republicans.
In May, top brass at ABC News and parent company Disney asked the show's panelists to dial back their constant complaining about Trump.
The White House said in a July statement that The View will be 'the next to be pulled off air' after an episode where panelist Joy Behar said that Trump was 'jealous' of former President Barack Obama.
Kimmel's show was taken off the air for four days late last year after Carr threatened to revoked ABC's broadcasting license after the host made a joke about the political affiliation of the suspected assassin of Charlie Kirk.
The year before, ABC News forked over a $16million settlement to Trump following erroneous on-air comments from Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos said during a live taping last year that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll when neither verdict in the case involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
Trump also sued CBS News in October, following a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris he said was 'deceptively edited.'
