Former Colbert Warm-Up Act Accuses NewsBusters Of Spreading 'Bulls***' Studies

August 22nd, 2025 9:48 AM

Once again, somebody in the late night comedy show business is calling “bullshit” on my most recent late night guest count study. This time the man attacking my integrity, as well as that of my NewsBusters colleagues, was Pete Dominick, Stephen Colbert’s former warm-up act, on Sunday’s Sanity with Alisyn and Dave podcast.

Dave refers to Dave Briggs, who is now co-hosting this show with former CNN and Fox News colleague Alisyn Camerota. Briggs asked, “I do have one last question about Colbert and it’s, according to the stats, he hosted 176 left-leaning guests, one Republican since 2022, and I would guess a similar ratio with Fallon and Kimmel. Is that a mistake?”

While we at NewsBusters appreciate Briggs confronting Dominick with our studies, it should be noted that the late night guest rolling count began in September 2022 as a way to see how the comedy shows were covering that year’s midterm election, and it has turned into a semi-annual exercise. As for Fallon and Kimmel, their ratios as of the end of June were 20.5-to-1 and 29-to-1, respectively. Still pretty bad, but not as horrific as Colbert’s 176-to-1. Readers anticipating January 2026’s installment can look forward to Fallon’s ratio falling with his recent hosting of Fox’s Greg Gutfeld.

 

 

Unlike Jon Stewart, Dominick at least tried to come up with an argument for why I was wrong. The problem for him, though, was it was a half-baked strawman, “No, and it’s also a bullshit statistic. Where does that come from?”

After Briggs informed him it came from NewsBusters, Dominick continued, “Yeah, it’s bullshit. Do you think that Colbert didn’t invite JD Vance and every single crazy right-winger on? They don’t come on with him because he’s too good at embarrassing them, and it makes no sense for someone.”

Briggs followed up, “You know that? Do you know that they tried to book conservatives?”

Dominick exclaimed, “Of course! It’s a bullshit statistic. You think Stephen Colbert is afraid of booking, like, anyone? No. That guy would love — He booked Trump. He would have anyone on that would go on, and he would rip them, and he would get huge ratings.”

Five things. First, I never claimed to do a study of invited guests because I am not privy to The Late Show’s internal deliberations; that would be impossible. Second, Colbert booked Trump back in 2015. As stated above, the study began in September 2022. Additionally, Colbert recently told PBS that he would not have Trump on as a guest nor “many politicians… that I think do not honestly represent what they actually believe, but are rather just playing to a crowd.” Third, if you listen to HBO’s Bill Maher, his problem is exactly the opposite: Republicans love to go on his show, while Democrats avoid him. Fourth, even if we assume Dominick is right, the study is about what the viewers see. If Dominick wants to challenge our opinion derived from the numbers, he can try, but he can’t call “bullshit” on the number itself.

Fifth, our critics may not believe us, but we are extremely generous to liberal media types in our studies. Most readers of this article would probably say former Rep. Liz Cheney is no longer a conservative, but she is counted as Colbert’s one Republican because she did sound like a traditional conservative when she challenged him on one point. Likewise, one of Kimmel’s conservative guests is Bill Burr, who is normally a pretty left-wing comedian, but he did manage to tell Kimmel something he didn’t want to hear about President Trump’s legal controversies. We also do not include foreign politicians on our list. If we did, Colbert's liberal guest count would be even higher.

Briggs pushed back again, “I don’t know. I’d be really curious because I watched Colbert’s interview with Kamala Harris, and I thought it was, look, I think Stephen Colbert is brilliant. It was weak, at best. No questions about Biden’s mental decline right in front of Kamala Harris. No questions about really pressing her on how she blew an election by not answering tough questions and sitting down for interviews. I thought it could have been a really interesting and compelling interview.”

Dominick confessed to not watching the whole interview but claimed he knows what we here at NewsBusters really think, “I didn’t see the full thing, but I think that it’s a late night show, and they’re trying to be as entertaining as possible, but I would agree with that criticism. I think that you should generally hold everybody’s feet to the fire. And this idea that we’re not entertaining right-wing opinions or that academia’s got a liberal bias, you miss me with all that nonsense! It is way up on bullshit mountain, including that statistic you just cited from that bizarrely discredited news organization NewsBusters, which is so right-wing and conspiratorial, I’m pretty sure they were birthers back in the day.”

The late night shows are simply not entertaining right-wing opinions. Meanwhile, we here at NewsBusters are not and never have been birthers. We are media analysts; we are not conspiracy theorists. If Dominick wants to challenge our studies, instead of calling us names, he should do his own and prove us wrong.

Here is a transcript for the August 17 show:

Sanity with Alisyn and Dave

8/17/2025

DAVE BRIGGS: I do have one last question about Colbert and it’s, according to the stats, he hosted 176 left-leaning guests, one Republican since 2022, and I would guess a similar ratio with Fallon and Kimmel. Is that a mistake?

PETE DOMINICK: No, and it’s also a bullshit statistic. Where does that come from?

BRIGGS: This comes from NewsBusters.

DOMINICK: Yeah, it’s bullshit. Do you think that Colbert didn’t invite JD Vance and every single crazy right-winger on? They don’t come on with him because he’s too good at embarrassing them, and it makes no sense for someone.

BRIGGS: You know that? Do you know that they tried to book conservatives?

DOMINICK: Of course! It’s a bullshit statistic. You think Stephen Colbert is afraid of booking, like, anyone? No. That guy would love — He booked Trump. He would have anyone on that would go on, and he would rip them, and he would get huge ratings.

BRIGGS: I don’t know. I’d be really curious because I watched Colbert’s interview with Kamala Harris, and I thought it was, look, I think Stephen Colbert is brilliant. It was weak, at best. No questions about Biden’s mental decline right in front of Kamala Harris. No questions about really pressing her on how she blew an election by not answering tough questions and sitting down for interviews. I thought it could have been a really interesting and compelling interview.

DOMINICK: See, I didn’t see the full thing, but I think that it’s a late night show, and they’re trying to be as entertaining as possible, but I would agree with that criticism. I think that you should generally hold everybody’s feet to the fire. And this idea that we’re not entertaining right-wing opinions or that academia’s got a liberal bias, you miss me with all that nonsense! It is way up on bullshit mountain, including that statistic you just cited from that bizarrely discredited news organization NewsBusters, which is so right-wing and conspiratorial, I’m pretty sure they were birthers back in the day.