Full disclosure, I’m a huge Stephen Colbert fan. Loved his Colbert Report, Loved him in Strangers from Candy, Loved his photographic memory and the way it shuts down blowhards. So there’s no love loss over here for Jimmy Fallon finally being dethroned as top banana in late night. Especially since just a month or so ago there was talk of replacing Colbert.
According to one of Page Six’s anonymous sources, Fallon is “feeling the pressure” to take on Trump in a bigger way now that Colbert is routinely beating him in the nightly ratings by hammering the president on a nightly basis.
For the first time since 2010, CBS’s Late Show won the February sweep period, averaging 3.02 million viewers compared to 2.87 million for Fallon’s Tonight Show on NBC.
Colberts decision to go back to his roots from Comedy Centrals Colbert Report seemed obvious as the political news became all anyone talks about. Stating, “audiences have come to expect, as the volume of information increases on legitimate news sources — as it’s turned into a firehouse — they want someone to curate the day for them,” he said, adding, “Americans digest their news through late-night comedy now.”
On the question of whether late-night TV has become more “partisan,” Colbert said, “I think that the shows are reflections of what the country’s like. And as the partisan divide in the country has become deeper, it is natural for the shows to fall on either side of a fence or else, I think – unless you truly are a neutral person, and I’ve never met one.” If a host is impartial, he added, “They’re not paying attention.”