Will ‘Trump Fatigue’ sink Colbert’s Late Show ratings?

Stephen Colbert has been on a 10-week run of beating Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, but will ‘Trump Fatigue’ sink his ratings?

It’s good to be Stephen Colbert right now, something that seems to still be weird to says. It feels not that long ago that we were talking about people who could replace the fledging host on Late Show, with David Letterman throwing not so subtle shots across the bow at his replacement.

But the tides have turned and the waters calmed, and now Colbert is the late night king. For 10-weeks running, he has dominated Jimmy Fallon and is showing no signs of slowing. Many are crediting his relentless attention spent on Donald Trump as a key factor, which is a blessing and a curse.

Colbert recently said that he’d trade a good president for bad ratings, but that forks off into a different conversation. His rise in late night ratings has been tied to Trump’s lunacy but what happens when the country gets fatigued?

That’s a concept raised by Pete Weber from The Week, who ponders what will happen when the country likely grows tired of Trump.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility to believe that the country will stop caring about the Trump trolls the way we do now. As stated in the piece from The Week, there might not be a more famous person in the world than Donald Trump but that will inevitably wain.

Look no further than how we grew bored and tired of the endless George W. Bush trolls throughout his eight years in office. By the middle of his presidency, it had become lowbrow and unoriginal to have a take on Bush and audiences quickly tossed aside the endless stream of impressionists and lame jokes.

Is that the future for Trump?

There needs to be a natural progression when it comes to late night coverage of Trump. Whether it’s four or eight years of him in the White House, the record needs to be changed every so often. The best way to do this is to glide into political commentary with sprinkles of comedy. It works like magic for John Oliver and Bill Maher at HBO and is something that the network late night hosts must adapt to.

must read: 30 Best Late Night Jokes about Donald Trump

Colbert might better suited for this than any of his contemporaries, as his experience with The Colbert Report means he has a baked in practice of blending comedy and politics. We’re already seeing him do that to a certain degree with Late Show, but to avoid the inevitable ‘Trump Fatigue’ that will change the game, Colbert needs to continue to find his creative footing the way other late night hosts haven’t.