Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, February 19th, 2026:
POLITICS IS A LOT LIKE SEX. THE MORE COMPLICATED IT GETS, THE LESS LIKELY YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE THE FINAL RESULTS
By now, you know all the back-and-forth that happened this week on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Colbert claimed CBS lawyers told him he couldn't have Texas state representative James Talarico on Monday night's show, so instead Colbert interviewed him and then posted the video on the show's YouTube channel. I am not going to rehash it all again here. But I wanted to use that as the jumping off point for illustrating how closely entertainment and politics are intertwined in 2026.
Early voting in Texas kicked off on Tuesday, ahead of the primary on March 3rd and the race everyone is watching is for the U.S. Senate. John Cornyn currently holds the seat, but he is facing a multi-candidate challenge, including a formidable campaign being run by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The national and state Republican leadership would like to see Cornyn win that primary, because they believe he has a better chance of winning in November than the controversial and very right-wing Paxton.
Paxton is currently leading in the polls, despite having been impeached by a Republican-led Texas House (he was acquitted in the Texas Senate), as well as having to pay a large fine for securities fraud following a decade-long court battle. But a recent poll showed that either Paxton or Cornyn was essentially tied when facing either of the two major Democratic primary candidates.
Which brings us to the Democratic primary, which has narrowed down to two candidates: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and Texas state representative James Talarico. Republicans have made no secret of the fact they'd prefer to face Crockett, who is seen as more progressive and who has been very outspoken in her criticism of President Trump. They believe she has higher negatives with moderate voters and Cornyn will need some of those voters if he ends up winning the primary. Because several polls show Cornyn has much higher negatives with Republican voters than Paxton.
Crockett has led Talarico in several recent polls and just to help things along a bit, there have been allegations that several GOP PACs have run anti-Talarico ads. Everything seemed to going to plan until this week.
Initially, Republicans reacted to Talarico's YouTube interview by pointing out this just showed how liberal late night talks continue to be, and they suggested proof of that was that Colbert insisted on doing the interview even after the warnings. And then after CBS released its statements suggesting the network hadn't prohibited Colbert from doing the interviews, conservative media types accused him of lying in order to make President Trump and FCC head Brendan Carr look bad. In other words, the talking points were pretty typical for this type of media event.
But things changed after Talarco's interview topped 7,000,000 views and following his announcement that his campaign had raised more than $2.5 million in campaign donations. Suddenly, many prominent conservatives took a different tack:
Depending on the person, conservatives are arguing that either:
1) This move was all a plan by the Democratic Party operative Stephen Colbert to help raise the profile of the candidate Dems preferred,
2) An example of racism by Colbert, who didn't want to help promote the campaign of a black woman,
3) A secret scheme to raise vast amounts of money for a Democratic candidate outside traditional methods, which means Colbert broke some unnamed Federal Elections Commission rule.
None of these theories hold up, but if you look at conservative social media accounts or listen to conservative radio talk show hosts today, this is currently topic number one.
While this isn't a political newsletter, I bring this up because this is likely to be a huge issue this year. There will be more pressure on Colbert to just get along, and these complaints will make Jimmy Kimmel's life even more complicated. Over the next 2 1/2 years the FCC is going to be targeting any talk show or broadcast television platform that highlights a person or a story that makes the current Administration unhappy.
And it’s also important to note that in this specific case, Republicans hope to increase Talarico’s negatives and perhaps convince some black voters to stay at home. Both are scenarios the party needs in order to guarantee a win in November. So it’s not really about equal access or implied racism by Stephen Colbert. It’s all about politics.
This is where we are now and it is going to be impossible to cover the business of television without also considering the political climate we live in. It isn't a Left-Right issue. It's one of using the powers of government in order to get the results you want.
THE GLOBAL TV AWARDS
There are two days left to vote for your favorite non-English language programs in the 2nd Annual Global TV Awards. Last year's awards garnered around 60,000 votes and this year I've just topped 110,000 individual votes so far.
EDITING 'REALITY CHECK: INSIDE AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL'
The newsletter Meet Me At Crafty has a truly fascinating interview with three editors who worked on the Netflix docuseries about the long-running reality series America's Top Model. The three-part documentary doesn't pull any punches and reading the interview, you get a real sense of how it came together:
What’s so striking about the entire docuseries is that all of this was out there. We watched it all happen. There wasn’t lost, behind-the-scenes footage. This all aired. We watched fashion shoots where young women posed as the unhoused with actual unhoused people in the background.
Mimi Wilcox: There were moments for me watching, as this was coming together, and thinking, “God, was that really in the episode? Did that really air?” And just thinking how differently I perceived it as a teenager, and now it feels really different. And it was often surprising to realize, indeed, that was in that episode.
Austin Flack: Whitney’s story, as the plus-size winner, is fascinating. It’s true that Tyra was trying to push the industry forward. And it’s also true there was a lot of gross stuff involved. Whitney’s experience was largely positive, but some of it is hard to watch. And the running body shaming of Keenyah across episodes was shocking. It wasn’t a one-off mistake. It became a storyline. It is stunning in retrospect to be like, “Let’s do three episodes about how this girl’s getting ‘pudgy.’” That was a really tough thing to watch.
I would really love to see Netflix do a docuseries taking a in-depth look at a couple of other well-known confrontational reality shows, such as Bar Rescue and Hell's Kitchen.
ODDS AND SODS
* I wrote a piece for Forbes about why I still believe Netflix will win it's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
* Lucy Horsley Investigates: The American Revolution premieres Tuesday, April 7th on PBS. Here is the official logline: "On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, popular British historian Lucy Worsley investigates the sabotage, espionage, and unrest that led to the birth of a new nation. In 1776, 13 American colonies declared independence from one of the most powerful empires in the world, igniting a bloody eight-year war that claimed thousands of lives and ended in Britain’s humiliating defeat. But how did this historic rupture come to pass, and could it have been avoided? Over two episodes, Lucy delves deeper into the American Revolution by examining it from the British perspective, discovering the human drama, radical ideas, and political missteps behind this seismic split, and revealing how losing America changed Britain forever."
* Season two of The House Of David premieres Friday, March 27th on Prime Video.
* Rapper Gunna has a documentary coming to Netflix, although the streamer has yet to announce it. But you can see a billboard hyping the project.
* Fox and sister company News Corp. have announced plans to match the U.S. government's one-time $1,000 contribution to so-called Trump Accounts, which debut in June. Both Comcast and Charter had previously announced plans to also match the contribution.
* Bedtime Stories with Ryan premieres Monday, March 2nd on Nick Jr.
* French-language drama series The Hunt (Traqués) will now premiere Wednesday, March 4th on Apple TV.
HOSTING THE OLYMPICS: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PARTICIPATION TROPHY
Amanda Shendruk at the Not-Ship newsletter has a great piece on what it costs to host the Olympics and it is not a pretty picture:
So when the Games end, countries and cities can be left with years, even decades, of debt. Montreal faced a $1.5 billion deficit from its 1976 Summer Games, which took three decades to pay off. The 2014 Sochi Winter Games continue to cost Russian taxpayers nearly $1 billion per year. After Rio hosted the 2016 Games, it required a bailout from the federal government. And the 2004 Olympics in Athens played a role in Greece's bankruptcy.
For host cities, the hope is that these astronomical costs will be offset by broader economic benefits. They argue time and again that the event will create jobs, lure tourists, and deliver an overall economic boost to the region. However, there's little evidence that this ever happens.
WHAT'S COMING TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH:
* Blue Skies Series Premiere (UPtv)
* Girl On The Run: The Hunt For America's Most Wanted Woman (Hulu)
* Murder In Glitterball City (HBO)
* The Descendants/ZOMBIES Worlds Collide: Concert Special (Disney+)
* The Night Agent Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
* The Puzzle Lady (PBS)
* The Swedish Connection (Netflix)
* TMZ Presents: Michael Jackson: 30 Fatal Seconds (Fox)
* True Crime Story: It Couldn't Happen Here (Sundance)
* Uncensored Season Premiere (TV One)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH:
* Dreaming Whilst Black Season Two Premiere (Paramount+)
* Everyone Has A Secret (LMN)
* Firebreak (Netflix)
* Pavane (Netflix)
* Portobello (HBO Max)
* Strip Law Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Last Thing He Told Me Season Two Premiere (Apple TV)
* The Orphans (Netflix)
SEE YOU EARLY FRIDAY!