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.
[See NewsBusters for more]
