Occasionally on my talk show, I will feature audio of politicians talking about the issue of the day while the final audio I play is from host/comedian Stephen Colbert. I will even lead into the Colbert audio with, “And here’s what political pundit, Stephen Colbert, said on his show last night.”
Of course, some people complain that Stephen Colbert is not a political pundit and don’t want to hear his anti-Trump rhetoric. I get that. But the truth is - Colbert is a political pundit.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a political pundit is “a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media.”
Late-night TV host, Stephen Colbert is a legitimate political pundit. “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is also the top-rated late-night talk show, beating Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon in the ratings.
This news this past weekend was dominated by new revelations about how violent the storming of the Capitol was on January 6th. More information was released about how ill-prepared Washington, D.C. was, even though there was a lot of chatter on social media evidence about plans to storm the Capitol. So, Monday was a big day for talk radio and the opinion-driven cable news channels.
The appetite for information and commentary on information was ravenous.
Kimmel, Fallon, and Colbert all engage in political content; but the content from Stephen Colbert is consistently more focused on the political news of the day with a strong slant toward anti-Trump rhetoric. That’s not surprising since Colbert matured on television on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central.
In the ratings from Monday night, Jimmy Fallon’s show drew the smallest audience for an original show in its history with under a million total viewers. Jimmy Kimmel was second with 1.67 million total viewers while Stephen Colbert attracted slightly over 2 million viewers. With the amount of shocking news that was generated over the weekend, it makes sense that the late-night host that is the most political would attract the most viewers.
Why is Stephen Colbert so popular, and why is he even on the air? Those are questions I have heard listeners who condemn Colbert for his constant attacks against President Trump. The answer to those questions is simple: Stephen Colbert is popular and Monday night was the top-rated late-night talk show host because there are a lot of Americans who agree with Colbert.
If you have a strong political point-of-view, it is hard for some people to believe that anyone would believe something different. All the talk of roughly 75 million people voting for President Trump sounds impressive until you compare it to the 80 million who voted for Joe Biden.
People think they have the power to determine what is popular in the media, but it’s not their decision. That decision is made by the whole audience.
Why would Stephen Colbert change his anti-Trump agenda when it’s working? What pro-Trump supporters should be focusing on is why there are so many people tuning in to hear Trump-bashing.
