For the late night comedy shows, the first half of 2026 was defined by the final airing in May of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But the political agenda of Colbert and his late night colleagues remained unchanged in January through June this year: No one expressing conservative views was ever granted a guest slot on a late night comedy show while 112 liberals were awarded guest appearances.
This 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 January 5 through June 25. Colbert’s last episode was May 21.
No joke! So far in 2026, late night comedy shows have had ZERO conservative guests on.
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) July 7, 2026
Instead they platformed leftist nuts like these people: pic.twitter.com/sm1tQiHbCy
As is tradition for MRC late night guest count studies, guests were divided into two categories: partisan officials and then journalists and celebrities. A complete breakdown of all 112 guests can be found here.
When it came to partisan officials, the count was 24 Democrats to zero Republicans.
The Daily Show led the way with 12, Colbert—despite being on the air one less month than his fellow hosts—placed second with nine, Kimmel placed third with two, and Fallon came in fourth with one. Meyers hosted zero Democrats during the studies’ runtime.
The count included five Democratic senators (Mark Kelly, Bernie Sanders, Jon Ossoff, Elizabeth Warren, and Raphael Warnock), and six Democratic governors (Abigail Spanberger, Josh Shapiro, Mikie Sherrill, Andy Beshear, Gavin Newsom, and Tim Walz).
This count does not include Texas Senate candidate James Talarico’s Late Show appearance because that was only posted online due to concerns about equal time rules.
For celebrities and journalists, the final tally was 88 liberals to zero conservatives. Colbert led all hosts with 41 liberal guests, The Daily Show placed second with 20, Kimmel came in third with 17, Meyers took fourth with seven, and Fallon finished last with three.
Here is a list of some of the most left-wing moments from the past six months from the celebrities and journalists, such as Bruce Springsteen and Jake Tapper, that the late night hosts chose to promote:
“So, I think a lot of people forget, including Russians, that Russia and the Soviet Union were the vanguard of world feminism.” – actress Julia Inhoffe on The Late Show
“There are parallels to all sorts of different slices of what we are seeing right now, but we've never had a president who thinks he should rule without being subject to elections.” – MS NOW host Rachel Maddow on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“That's their game. And so what are we seeing in Minneapolis right now? What have we seen in our history in this country? Think about the Civil Rights Movement. Profound state violence used against protesters. They prepared, they trained, they role-played, they organized, all to make that political violence backfire. Think of Selma.” – activist Maria Stephan on The Late Show
“What we've seen on the streets of Minneapolis is that in fearlessly—in a fearless and disciplined fashion, refusing to give an inch to the regime, you expose its malevolence. And that's what happened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge when the cops started beating up the protesters.” – MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Late Night
“And Renee Good, trying to calm this untrained, scared ICE officer. Then going, ‘Dude, I'm not mad.’ You know? It's really been remarkable what we've seen coming out of Minnesota.” – MS NOW host Joe Scarborough on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“This is nobody's country. I don't know who told small-pecker white men that this is their country, but it's not!” – actress Ms. Pat on The Daily Show
“He was kind of like fascist Oprah out there. Like, ‘You get a medal, you get a medal!’ – former Obama staffer-turned podcaster Dan Pfeiffer on Trump's State of the Union address on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“I mean, obviously as a journalist I'm really not supposed to say this, but I feel deeply ashamed, and I think it belies a staggering lack of humility, and frankly, it doesn't really matter so much what I think or feel about it…I think it just plays into the worst stereotypes about America and how America wields its power and what America cares about. And for so many in this region who have just felt dehumanized and humiliated for decades now, yeah, it's just, it's a lot.” – CNN reporter Clarissa Ward on the administration's Iran War memes on The Late Show
“All the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are. In other words, to your voting registrar, this is what I understand.” – actress Meryl Streep on the SAVE Act on The Late Show
“There are a bunch of us that are going to be wearing these. These are from the Reporters Committee for the Free Press. They may be some guests there that are unfamiliar.” – CNN host Jake Tapper on the White House Correspondents Dinner on The Late Show
“He doesn't need another Stephen Colbert as a hobbit. He doesn't need another Stephen Colbert as a wizard. But I know you love The Lord of the Rings. So, I painted you this. – Tapper while presenting Colbert with a painting of him as Gollum on The Late Show
“You’re as relevant as the Bill of Rights” – actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus while roasting Stephen Colbert on The Late Show
“Well, boosters are folks that shoplift and sell at a discount price. So it is something that, as a broke rapper for many decades, I have definitely had to have around me in order to stay fly because staying fly is part of the job requirement.” – director and self-styled communist Boots Riley on his new movie I Love Boosters on The Daily Show
“But to the folks at CBS in the words of the great Ed Murrow, good night, good luck mother[bleep]." – former Late Show host David Letterman on The Late Show
“I am here in support tonight for Stephen, because you're the first guy in America who's lost his show because we got a president who can't take a joke. And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. So, these are— Anyway, Stephen, these are small-minded people, they got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about. This is for you.” – singer Bruce Springsteen on The Late Show
“We want to organize the entertainment industry to not cooperate with what is happening because our democracy is being destroyed. Our rights are being taken away.” – actress Jane Fonda on The Daily Show
“You are made exactly the way you are supposed to be, and your transness, your gayness, your lesbianism, your bisexuality, these are all divine. – activist Laverne Cox The Daily Show
Kimmel did interview former boxer Mike Tyson and press him on his work with the Trump administration, especially HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he was not included because NewsBusters analysts do not consider promoting healthy eating to be sufficiently political.
NewsBusters also does not consider libertarians to be sufficiently conservative to be counted as one. Therefore, Jenin Younes’s January 12 Daily Show appearance is counted as liberal because while she did say some things critical of the Biden administration that conservatives would agree with on the issue of free speech, she also said that the Trump administration has been worse.
More than usual during an MRC late night guest count study, the late night hosts helped promote each other. This was largely due to Colbert’s farewell tour, as each regular host plus The Daily Show Monday host Jon Stewart each appeared at least twice on Colbert’s show.
Fellow late night host John Oliver of HBO led all guests with four appearances, including three with Colbert. MS NOW’s Chris Hayes, Stewart, and Fallon tied for second with three appearances. All six of Fallon and Stewart's combined appearances were with Colbert.
Meanwhile, PBS’s Henry Louis Gates Jr., actress Jane Fonda, Pod Save America’s Jon Lovett, actress Wanda Sykes, actress Meryl Streep, The Daily Show’s Josh Johnson, Kimmel, and Meyers each had two appearances. Of Johnson, Kimmel, and Meyers's six appearances, five were with Colbert. Johnson also had one appearance with Kimmel. Desi Lydic also appeared once with Kimmel, and Colbert once joined Meyers on his goodbye tour.
As for other media outlets, CNN personalities were promoted five times, The New York Times made four appearences, PBS had three, and The Atlantic two.
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NewsBusters has been tracking late night comedy guest counts since September 2022, and the cumulative total now stands at 716 liberals and Democrats versus 15 conservatives and Republicans, or 98 percent liberal.
