“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert’s off-the-cuff remark about CNN drew an unexpected reaction from his New York City audience on his Tuesday show.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins appeared on the late-night comedy show where she discussed learning about President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race, the media’s relationship with former President Trump and how Vice President Harris had shaken up the 2024 race.
Collins said that the Trump campaign had been thrown off by the sudden change of the Democratic nominee after Biden stepped aside in late July. She claimed Trump had “really struggled” to come up with attack lines that were effective against his new opponent, Harris. Colbert then started to praise Collins’ news organization in a lead up to a question.
“I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is,” he told Collins as audience members started to laugh in the background.
“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert drew an unexpected reaction from his NYC audience after he praised CNN as objective news. (CBS/Screenshot)
“No, no no —” Colbert objected while waving his hand and grinning at the audience’s reaction. “CNN makes a…” he trailed off.
“Was that supposed to be a laugh line?” Collins reacted with a smirk.
“It wasn’t supposed to be, but I guess it is,” Colbert joked back before quickly pivoting to his question.
The interaction was first spotted by the Media Research Center’s Brent Baker, who shared a clip on X.
“Not even NYC lefties buy CNN as objective,” he wrote.
“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert got an unexpected reaction after he praised CNN’s objectivity. (CBS ‘The Late Show’/Screenshot)
During the Trump presidency, CNN developed a reputation as a partisan news organization due to the anti-Trump tone that dominated the network’s primetime programming. Then-White House reporter Jim Acosta was regularly combative with members of the administration. As a result, Trump referred to CNN as “fake news” on a regular basis for years.
TV producer Chris Licht, formerly the executive producer of Colbert’s show, took over the network in 2022 and made it clear he wanted to dial back the left-leaning opinion programming that engulfed the network under his predecessor, Jeff Zucker. He made overtures to Republicans who had been alienated by its past coverage and fired some of its well-known liberal anchors and reporters, but Zucker-era staffers remained throughout the company.
Licht was eventually fired in 2023 after reportedly losing the faith of the long-struggling network’s liberal employees.
Left-wing commentators Jeffrey Toobin, Don Lemon and Brian Stelter have made appearances on the network in recent months after being pushed out under Licht’s leadership.
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Fox News’ Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this article.