Greg Gutfeld now beats Stephen Colbert in late-night ratings every single night.
That fact alone tells you everything about where nine years of lecturing Americans got Colbert.
But what he just revealed about election night 2016 is the story his fans will never be able to explain away.
Naked Male Models and a Guarantee That Never Came
Colbert just aired a “Worst Of” special – the jokes and skits that never made it to air during his 18 years on CBS.
The centerpiece was a story about election night 2016.
Colbert told his audience he and his team were so certain Hillary Clinton would win that they hired naked male models with “I’m With Her” painted on their backsides – planned for a live Showtime special celebrating her victory.
“We were so sure that the New York Times’ prediction needle was right,” Colbert explained.
They hired naked men as a victory celebration before a single vote was counted.
When the results started rolling in, the models had to be repainted on the fly.
“We re-painted their butts to say, ‘We’re f—ed,'” Colbert told his audience.
His co-executive producer Matt Lappin was backstage screaming into his headset: “Scrub the butts!”
“That night, even the butts cried,” Lappin said.
The Numbers Tell the Story Colbert Won’t
Colbert peaked at 3.1 million viewers in the 2017-18 season – the year he turned The Late Show into a nightly anti-Trump rally.
By his final season, that number was down to 1.9 million.
Jay Leno averaged 5 million nightly viewers throughout his entire run.
David Letterman pulled 7.8 million at his peak.
Colbert decided that was all too big an audience.
Since 2022, a media watchdog found he hosted 176 left-leaning guests and exactly one Republican.
One.
Meanwhile, Greg Gutfeld built a show from scratch doing the opposite – and now beats Colbert every night.
Jay Leno put it plainly after Colbert’s cancellation was announced: “I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture. Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole?”
Colbert had an answer for that question.
His answer was “I’m With Her” painted on naked men’s backsides before the polls even closed.
What Comes Next Says It All
CBS isn’t replacing Colbert with another political comedian.
They’re replacing him with an apolitical standup comedy show and a game show.
Not a talk show.
Not another host who delivers the nightly liberal sermon.
They want something that will actually bring people back.
Colbert chose a side in 2016 – painted it in advance on the backsides of naked male models – and spent the next nine years bleeding viewers who didn’t want to be preached at by someone still furious that Hillary lost.
His audience shrank by nearly 40 percent.
Gutfeld took the crown.
CBS pulled the plug.
That’s what choosing half the country gets you.
Sources:
- Alana Mastrangelo, “Stephen Colbert Reveals He Planned to Ring In a Hillary Victory with ‘I’m With Her’ Message Painted on Men’s Butts,” Breitbart, May 19, 2026.
- Staff, “CBS Reveals Stephen Colbert’s Replacement Months After Late Show Cancelation,” Breitbart, April 6, 2026.
- Staff, “Samantha Bee, Jay Leno Say Ratings, Revenue and ‘Lecturing’ Doomed Colbert,” Straight Arrow News, July 30, 2025.
- Joseph Wulfsohn, “Late-Night Comedy Flounders in Ratings as Colbert, Kimmel, Others Openly Root for Democrats,” Fox News, October 7, 2022.
- Staff, “Leno’s Right: Colbert Got Canned Because Americans Are Tired of Left’s Lectures,” USA Today, July 29, 2025.
