For the men of the late night comedy talk shows, the second half of 2025 was not good. In July, Stephen Colbert announced his show will be cancelled next year, and in September, Jimmy Kimmel was suspended for peddling conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s assassin’s political ideology. As a result, many guests would often gush over them and portray them as free speech martyrs, and when combined with the other shows, 99 percent of late night guests were liberals in the last six months of 2025. This matches the result from the first six months of this year and the last six months of 2024.
The grand totals were 90 liberals and Democrats compared to one conservative. 
The study looked at the five daily late night comedy shows: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show from July 7 through December 19.
MRC analysts also divided the guests into two categories: partisan officials and then journalists and celebrities.
When it came to partisan officials, the count was 31 Democrats to 0 Republicans.
Colbert led the way with 17, Kimmel came in second with seven, The Daily Show came in third with six, and Meyers placed fourth with one, and Fallon interviewed zero politicians during the study’s run.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Sen. Mark Kelly each appeared twice.
When it came to journalists and celebrities, the count was 59 liberals to one conservative.
Colbert again led all hosts with 21, The Daily Show placed second with 19, Kimmel came in third with 10 (including one by guest host Anthony Anderson), Meyers followed up with six and Fallon had three.
Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld’s August 7 appearance on The Tonight Show was the lone conservative appearance.
CNN personalities led all media outlets with five appearances, ABC was next at four, while The New Yorker, Comedy Central, and MSNBC/MS NOW had three.
HBO’s John Oliver and CNN’s Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper each appeared twice.
(A complete breakdown can be found here.)
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NewsBusters has been tracking late night comedy guest counts since September 2022, and the cumulative total now stands at 604 liberals and Democrats versus 15 conservatives and Republicans, or 97 percent.
Methodology: Journalists were defined as either liberal or conservative, regardless of the segment’s subject matter. A celebrity was defined as either a current late night host if that host was on to be interviewed, political activist, or anyone famous who discussed politics or a religious project. If a celebrity is known to have strong political beliefs, but did not discuss them, they were not included.
A politician was defined as any currently or previously elected American office holder, White House staffer, cabinet secretary, their spouse, or any of their children who were on to discuss political matters. A politician who has since entered the media is considered to be a journalist.
