Late-night comedy hosts including Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel spent 2024 repeatedly bashing now President-elect Donald Trump — and experienced another bad year as their cultural relevance and viewership continue to crash.
The network comedians told a total of 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the recent fall election period, with a whopping 98 percent of them aimed at Trump, according to a recent study by the Media Research Center. The study covered the period from September 3 through October 25.
In addition, 78 percent of jokes aimed at vice presidential candidates targeted J.D. Vance.
Stephen Colbert even featured Kamala Harris as a guest in October, where she was treated to softball questions that she still managed to flub.
Both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert experienced emotional meltdowns on their first broadcasts after Trump’s decisive victory — winning both the electoral college and the popular vote — with Kimmel holding back tears in what was a difficult show for the comedian.
The clear bias comes as the network shows continue to lose their cultural relevance.
Several recent polls have shown that voters don’t care about the political opinions of celebrities.
For the recent presidential election, a full 75 percent of Americans said a celebrity’s endorsement of a candidate made no difference or not much of a difference on how they voted, according to a Rasmussen poll released last month.
Meanwhile, an AP-NORC poll released this week showed just under 40 percent of Democrat respondents said they approved of celebrities sharing their views on politics, while just 11 percent of Republicans and 12 percent of independents said the same.
In a concession to changing times, NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon announced in September plans to reduce its production schedule to airing new shows just four nights per week instead of five, with reruns airing on Fridays.
Cord cutting continues to eat into late-night audiences, with younger viewers in particular tuning out, preferring to watch clips on YouTube or social media the following day.
The numbers paint a dire picture.
Colbert’s CBS show — usually the top-rated among the three major networks — garnered an average of 2.6 million viewers during the 2023-24 season, way down from 3.81 million five years ago. The current 2024-25 season isn’t looking better. For the recent third quarter, Colbert attracted an average of 2.5 million.