TV critic Trump gets his ratings wrong

“Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts,” wrote Donald Trump in his unique style following the final episode of Colbert’s Late Show on Thursday night.

“Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Suggested Reading

AI isn’t a threat, says noted science expert Toby Young

Rats in a Sack

The president may fancy himself as a TV reviewer, but he would probably have to check his facts. The Late Show, which bowed out with a performance from hip young gunslinger Paul McCartney, was the most-watched late-night show in the US for the past nine consecutive years, winning an Emmy in the process and pulling in an average audience of 2.7 million viewers – enormous, given the huge changes to TV viewing habits in the past decade.

Alas for Colbert, he was the latest victim of the Trump administration’s war on the media, the announcement of The Late Show’s closure coming just days after the host had accused parent company Paramount of paying Trump a “big fat bribe”.

It and broadcaster CBS had just agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by Trump over a complete non-event on 60 Minutes, which happened to coincide with Paramount attempting to close a multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance requiring the approval of the Trump-aligned Federal Communications Commission.

Suggested Reading

The right wing press continues its campaign against Andy Burnham

Rats in a Sack

CBS’s absurd claim that the decision was “purely financial” was mocked in Colbert’s final show, with a gaggle of dolphins sarcastically declaring “It was purely a financial decision”.

Still, the presenter will probably be fine: he is co-writing a new Lord of the Rings movie for Warner Bros, could easily make a fortune were he to move into podcasting and has even been spoken of as a future president.

And if Trump really wants to see an “untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated” TV presenter, there’s good news – his son Don Junior is said to be still in talks with Amazon over hosting a Prime reboot of his father’s Apprentice TV series.