Marty Berman was an executive producer of Geraldo Rivera’s talk show

While some hosts maintained decorum, others scraped the bottom of the barrel for ratings, as ABC’s new docuseries illustrates.

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that daytime and late-night TV talk shows featuring interviews with political candidates must comply with "equal time" rules that give airtime to views of opposing candidates and that the shows cannot rely on a 2006 decision that suggested they were exempt.

Montel Williams opens up about '90s daytime talk show culture in ABC's 'Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV.' During the docuseries, Williams reflected that every talk show wanted to 'put the biggest breasts on air' as stories got steamier and more salacious.

President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission is plotting a regulatory crackdown on politician interviews, changing the enforcement of a longtime rule to effectively prohibit broadcast talk shows from interviewing Democratic candidates without also allowing their Republican opponents to have an interview as well.

The Federal Communications Commission said it will step up enforcement of politically driven daytime and late-night programming to ensure equal treatment for both sides of the aisle. The three major broadcast networks were issued guidance regarding their compliance with the Communications Act of 1934’s “statutory equal opportunities requirement,