NBC’s Jimmy Fallon had Thursday off, but for the remaining three late night comedy shows, Thursday presented an opportunity to continue gloating over the midterm election results as they touted Mississippi’s Scott Colom getting his “revenge” on Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel began by hyping, “The votes have been counted and, for the first time since 1874, the state of Mississippi has a black senator. Scott Colom is the first African-American elected to the Senate in that state in 150 years. It's a state that has the largest percentage of black people in America. Colom beat the incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a major upset as part of the blue wave. I have to say, credit where credit is due – turns out Donald Trump really has done more for black people than any president with the possible exception of Lincoln. Thank you, Mr. President.”
🧵The comedy shows really hyped the idea that Scott Colom winning Mississippi was a great act of revenge. Jimmy Kimmel claimed "One of the best parts of this story is that Scott Colom was nominated in 2022 by President Biden to be a federal judge. His nomination was blocked by… pic.twitter.com/y3iEEcbImd
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 13, 2026
Kimmel then turned to a movie metaphor that he clearly hadn’t thought all the way through, “One of the best parts of this story is that Scott Colom was nominated in 2022 by President Biden to be a federal judge, but his nomination was blocked by Cindy Hyde-Smith. And now, he's back, and he took her seat. It's the political equivalent of what happened to the guys who killed John Wick's dog.”
If that’s true, then the blue wave means either Colom or the whole country is going to be stuck in the political equivalent of Dante’s version of hell for whatever the real-life equivalent of four movies is.
Flawed movie analogies aside, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host-of-the-week Desi Lydic gushed, “What's even more incredible is that Scott Colom originally didn't want to run against Hyde-Smith. He wanted to be a federal judge, but guess who blocked his appointment? Cindy [bleep]ing Hyde-Smith.”
She also claimed, “So she blocked him from a job, then he took her job. This isn't just a huge day for Mississippi or a huge day for black Americans. It's also a huge day for petty people who live for revenge.”
The Daily Show's Desi Lydic hypes "What's even more incredible is that Scott Colom originally didn't want to run against Hyde-Smith. He wanted to be a federal judge, but guess who blocked his appointment? Cindy [bleep]ing Hyde-Smith. And she was pretty smug on election night when… pic.twitter.com/AZHcRi8R4d
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 13, 2026
Later, Lydic welcomed liberal historian and woman who claimed Charlie Kirk’s killer was a right-winger, Heather Cox Richardson, to show and wondered, “We are a week and some change right after the midterms. As a historian, how are you looking at this particular moment?”
Richardson, “Scott Colom, baby… But, you know, the other ad that he had about Medgar Evers, and just walking through his house and saying he died for the right to vote, why don't you exercise it? I wonder if that was just as powerful because what this election was really about was the American people saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute, it's our government. Not your government. And this is our opportunity to take it back,' and I think that’s what we saw.”
She also hyped, “And I have to say, not to belabor the point, but when Scott Colom was still in the game by the time I went to bed that night, you realized it was something that we have not seen in our lifetimes and that people haven't seen for a very long time and that's really exciting, right? To sit there and say we really can, that we really can change the direction of our country if we choose to participate in it. That's what makes this election so incredibly exciting is that recognition that all the cards are in the air and we get to catch them and figure out how we want them to go back down.”
Over at NBC, Late Night host Seth Meyers cued up a couple of news clips by declaring, "This story keeps getting better because not only is it a historic accomplishment, it's also payback.”
Seth Meyers also gloats, "But this story keeps getting better because not only is it a historic accomplishment, it's also payback...She blocked him from becoming a judge. Then he ran against her and won. This election is an incredible story of perseverance, racial progress, a… pic.twitter.com/PZ7ODlTGKB
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 13, 2026
Afterwards, Meyers further cheered, “She blocked him from becoming a judge. Then he ran against her and won. This election is an incredible story of perseverance, racial progress, a testament to those who fought for decades to expunge the evils of the past, but it's also a beautiful story of revenge. I mean, that sounds like something George would do in an episode of Seinfeld.”
Black Republicans in the South have gotten elected to statewide office before for many years now, but if Colom loses in six years, liberals will almost certainly claim that is a setback to racial progress because Kimmel, Meyers, Lydic, and Richardson all appear to believe that democracy is only democracy and that racial progress can only happen when Democrats win.
Here are transcripts for the November 12-taped shows:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
11/12/2026
11:36 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: The votes have been counted and, for the first time since 1874, the state of Mississippi has a black senator. Scott Colom is the first African-American elected to the Senate in that state in 150 years. It's a state that has the largest percentage of black people in America. Colom beat the incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a major upset as part of the blue wave. I have to say, credit where credit is due –turns out Donald Trump really has done more for black people than any president with the possible exception of Lincoln. Thank you, Mr. President.
One of the best parts of this story is that Scott Colom was nominated in 2022 by President Biden to be a federal judge, but his nomination was blocked by Cindy Hyde-Smith. And now, he's back, and he took her seat. It's the political equivalent of what happened to the guys who killed John Wick's dog.
***
Comedy Central The Daily Show
11/12/2026
11:06 PM ET
DESI LYDIC: What's even more incredible is that Scott Colom originally didn't want to run against Hyde-Smith. He wanted to be a federal judge, but guess who blocked his appointment? Cindy [bleep]ing Hyde-Smith. And she was pretty smug on election night when she thought she won.
CINDY HYDE-SMITH: I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge and you blocked him from being a U.S. Senator.
LYDIC: [HYDE-SMITH VOICE] “Make sure you get a video of me bragging about this because I'm going to want to watch it later.” So she blocked him from a job, then he took her job. This isn't just a huge day for Mississippi or a huge day for black Americans. It's also a huge day for petty people who live for revenge.
…
LYDIC: Okay. We are a week and some change right after the midterms. As a historian, how are you looking at this particular moment?
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Scott Colom, baby.
LYDIC: Yes.
RICHARDSON: And earlier you were showing that incredible ad he had about choosing a different protein? But, you know, the other ad that he had about Medgar Evers, and just walking through his house and saying he died for the right to vote, why don't you exercise it? I wonder if that was just as powerful because what this election was really about was the American people saying, “Hey, wait a minute, it's our government. Not your government. And this is our opportunity to take it back,” and I think that’s what we saw.
And I have to say, not to belabor the point but when Scott Colom was still in the game by the time I went to bed that night, you realized it was something that we have not seen in our lifetimes and that people haven't seen for a very long time and that's really exciting, right?
To sit there and say we really can, that we really can change the direction of our country if we choose to participate in it. That's what makes this election so incredibly exciting is that recognition that all the cards are in the air and we get to catch them and figure out how we want them to go back down.
***
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
11/13/2026
12:47 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: But this story keeps getting better because not only is it a historic accomplishment, it's also payback.
CARL HULSE: This is such a fascinating story because the history is he was nominated to be a federal judge by Joe Biden and Cindy Hyde-Smith was the person who blocked him. And he had the support of everyone else. She single handedly blocked him.
EUGENE DANIELS: Cindy Hyde-Smith is someone who blocked Colom from being a judge and him coming back and running –
KATY TUR: It's an amazing irony.
DANIELS: The story. They're like, actually, just let him be a judge, maybe we wouldn't be here talking about Mississippi at this point.
MEYERS: She blocked him from becoming a judge. Then he ran against her and won. This election is an incredible story of perseverance, racial progress, a testament to those who fought for decades to expunge the evils of the past, but it's also a beautiful story of revenge. I mean, that sounds like something George would do in an episode of Seinfeld.
