The series finale of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” drew 6.74M viewers on Thursday night, making it the most-watched weeknight episode in the show’s history. • The finale was up sharply from the show’s 2026 Q1 average of 2.69M viewers • It’s also above “The Late Show” series premiere on Sept. 8, 2015, which averaged 6.55M viewers • The most-watched episode remains Colbert’s post-Super Bowl broadcast on Feb. 7, 2016, which drew 20.55M viewers variety.com/2026/tv/news/the…

May 22, 2026 · 8:22 PM UTC

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And 45 million people viewed this on @x 😂🥳✌️🇺🇸 ⬇️
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 22
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Wait, so even with the other hacks like Kimmel sending their shows dark and telling them to watch Colbert, he still only did as well as an average night of Carson?
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Pathetic from a historical standpoint. It really exposes the failures.
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His left pals are working hard for him.
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My tribute to variety and Colbert.
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So about half the rating of Letterman’s final episode….. that’s weird… It’s like he somehow alienated half of the show’s audience.
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@grok How many Republican guests did Colbert have on? How many Democrats did Colbert have on as guests?
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Florida Jon
@jopawo
May 23
Ok I'll bite. Who is Stephen Colbert?
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My meme of Anne Hathaway has double that nitter.cf/randomrecruiter/status…
The Random Recruiter
@randomrecruiter
8 Aug 2025
“Hey! Just sent over a 4pm calendar invite with your manager. Nothing to worry about. Also, could you send a quick list of your current projects?”
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so, even Variety agrees fewer than 7 million viewers on a series finale is not good?
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I had a earlier this week with 10m lol
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Got blown out by reruns of a cop show that was cancelled two years ago.
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wow that's almost 2% of the population
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Most the people in this thread can't do math. He is beloved. Like him or not the WAY it happened is the problem. 1st Amendment anyone? Oh wait no. You all sold that to the billionaires. Good luck with that.
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Yeah, but it doesn't matter. It got cancelled because his nightly left wing Klan rally was losing the network $40M a year.
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Those numbers suck. Considering it’s on free TV in over 100,000,000 households. Good riddance to poor talent.
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The economics of legacy TV give me so much anxiety -Colbert salary = $20m/yr -200 staff @$70k/yr = $14m/yr labor -Equipment + rent+ etc. is likely 4X that -Burn rate of ~$80-100 million All that and they get less views than some autistic Welshman on YouTube reviewing star wars
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Her hotdog got 10m views... nitter.cf/i/status/2057978066786…
Tiffany Fong
@TiffanyFong
May 23
My chili dog drew more viewers than the series finale of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
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Turns out being an unfunny leftist twat isn't profitable.
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Lol, no it didn't.
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Leno drew 14.6 for his finale. Colbert was averaging the numbers that got Conan booted, and Conan was killing it in key demos (Colbert’s audience was largely liberal boomers). Needed to cut costs or improve the demos. Did neither.
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This post is Democrat Party propaganda, just like his program was Democrat Party propaganda. He failed because Americans aren't as stupid as your party thinks we are. nitter.cf/realJeremyCarl/status/…
Jeremy Carl
@realJeremyCarl
May 23
When the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson signed off in 1992, 55 Million of America's 250 Million people watched. (More than 1 in 5 Americans) Stephen Colbert's final show drew 6.7 Million out of 342 Million Americans (less than 2%) That's the difference between being an American institution and preaching to a small and dying liberal choir.
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Johnny Carson would avg some 12 million on a regular weeknight show.
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That just shows how few viewers regularly watched it. Next time, try to be funny, retards.
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that jump from the q1 average is massive. ending higher than you started almost a decade later is a rare way to go out.
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Common Sense Todd
@CommonSenseTodd
May 23
You left out that the show lost money ($40mil) per year.
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The late night shows haven’t been funny in years. Just political hatred and fake outrage. Good riddance to Colbert and hopefully Kimmel and Meyers are next.
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50 million watched Carson with less people and access. People are seeing the insufferable left for what they are.
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Yo @grok how many of the sobbing media shitlibs and useless Democrat politicians plugged in multiple TVs to boost that viewer number?
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65.3 MILLION VIEWS nitter.cf/i/status/2057968277062…
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 22
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This video has 13 million views already nitter.cf/realDonaldTrump/status…
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 22
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