Late-Night Political Guests Leaning Left, Survey Shows
A recent survey from Newsbusters at the Media Research Center has found that nearly all political guests on late-night comedy shows during the first half of 2025 are left-leaning. The study indicated that an impressive 99% of these guests lean towards the left.
This analysis focused on popular late-night programs, including ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “The Tonight Show” featuring Jimmy Fallon, CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
The findings also reported that “The View,” a show on ABC, hosted 63 liberal guests and did not feature any conservatives throughout 2025. It’s interesting, or perhaps disappointing, depending on your perspective.
The survey categorized guests into two main groups: partisan officials and journalists or celebrities. Notably, there were zero conservative guests among the 30 political figures counted. Stephen Colbert led with the highest number of left-leaning guests at 14, followed by “The Daily Show” with 10. In contrast, Fallon interviewed no politicians at all during the survey timeframe.
Some prominent Democrats, such as Senators Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth, and Jasmine Crockett, made multiple appearances.
From a journalistic and celebrity viewpoint, the tally stood at 76 liberals against just one conservative guest, Oren Cass from American Compass.
Interestingly, Cass appeared on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart to discuss tariffs introduced during Trump’s administration.
Colbert’s show maintained its position as the most liberal of the late-night programs, with a remarkable number of left-leaning guests. “The Daily Show” followed behind, with a count of 22, while Kimmel and Fallon had significantly fewer liberal guests, at six and five, respectively.
The tracking from Newsbusters has been ongoing since September 2022, revealing a striking trend: a total of 511 liberals and Democrats versus just 14 conservatives and Republicans—making the split roughly 97% to 3%.
