Although election night was the beginning of an upward surge in popularity for Late Show host Stephen Colbert, he found the prospect of announcing a Trump victory comparable to forcing his audience to watch an execution.
Since the presidential election, Colbert’s ratings have been better than ever. More importantly, even better than Jimmy Fallon’s (the liberal media never forgave poor Jimmy for tousling Trump’s hair and “normalizing” him). And when that happens, his staff gets pizza.
Colbert has Trump to thank for this winning surge, according to Hollywood Reporter TV editor Marisa Guthrie on Thursday, but by the liberal host’s own admission, he’d “trade good ratings for a better president.”
When Guthrie and Colbert met for a talk, the discussion quickly turned to November 8 and the latter’s “Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale.” To Colbert, the election was so “unreal” it “felt a little bit like somebody dying.”
“We had a framework for four different shows that night,” the host recalled. “Hillary wins, and we know it; looks like Hillary's going to win, but we don't know it; Trump wins, possibly, but it'll be a long time before we know… Then the fourth one is that Trump wins, and we know it.”
But Colbert and his team didn’t bother to think about that last scenario.
“I'm not saying it can't happen, but let's just say if it does happen, I'm going to be speaking to an audience that are like villagers who've been dragged into the soccer stadium in Chile to watch people be executed," he remembered thinking. “It's going to be the darkest room you could possibly [imagine].”
On November 8, Colbert was indeed forced to enter that “darkest room,” and attempt to illuminate it… with zero preparation. “Hardest f—king thing I ever did,” Colbert reflected.
Even so, the late-night host is thankful. “What a privilege to be on TV right now,” he told Guthrie. “I think I’ve got the best job in America.”
