February 02, 2018

James Corden, Stephen Colbert Debunk Trump's State of the Union Ratings Claim

After the president tweeted that the audience for his speech was the "highest number in history," the late-night hosts took a moment during their Thursday shows to counter Trump's claims.
After making his State of the Union address earlier this week, President Donald Trump referred to its ratings as the “highest number in history," leaving late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and James Corden ready to counterargue his claim.
“What Trump tweeted isn’t remotely true. I know. Shocking!” The Late Late Show’s Corden said during his opening monologue Thursday.
Nielsen reported that about 45.6 million tuned in to watch Trump Tuesday night, which is roughly 5 percent below Trump's speech to Congress last year. Former President Barack Obama’s first SOTU had 48 million views, with the most-watched SOTU address this century being George W. Bush's speech in 2003, seen by an average of 62 million viewers.
As for Trump's ratings, Corden joked, "That’s nearly one person for every standing ovation the Republicans gave him throughout the speech." The late-night host also quipped that every address is "pretty unwatchable."

Over at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the late-night host was quick to dub Trump’s “history” claim as “not true” and a “lie.”
“It doesn’t matter how many people watched. But what does matter is that the president needs to lie about it and then somehow get away with it. This is the new world we live in,” Colbert said. The late-night host then sarcastically congratulated the president for “winning the Super Bowl.” “Also you make a great Black Panther,” Colbert jokingly added.
Colbert then emphasized that while Trump didn’t make history with his ratings, he managed to make “Twitter history” by having his address be the most tweeted-about address. “Yes, Twitter history. It’s like regular history, but shorter and not true. And somehow, more Nazis.”

Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2018