Stephen Colbert roasted Donald Trump over his poor Kennedy Center Honors ratings by throwing the president’s favorite “no talent, low-rated” insult back in his face.
The comedian addressed the ratings for the annual tribute during Tuesday’s monologue for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” in which he gleefully noted this year’s Kennedy Center Honors “drew an all-time low viewership on CBS with host Donald Trump.”
“Nobody saw that coming,” Colbert joked. “I’m sorry, I read that wrong. Uh, nobody saw that.”
As Colbert continued, he shared that Trump only managed to draw in a little over 3 million viewers on CBS, a fact the late night host was particularly pleased by.
“Now, it is beneath me to gloat, but if it weren’t beneath me, I’d call him no talent, low-rated Donald Trump,” he said. “You know what? Wow. I gotta say, I see why he says that. That felt good.”
Colbert added: “Then again, maybe we should cut the guy some slack. After all, it was just his first year hosting. As a former Kennedy Center host myself, I know it can take a while to build an audience. What were my ratings my first year? 9.25 million views.”
As the comedian feigned disbelief that he had three times as many viewers, he quipped that he “didn’t even name the building after myself.”
“Trump’s terrible numbers hurt more when you remember that he predicted it would be the highest rated show they have ever done,” Colbert went on. “Well, that’s about as far off as a prediction could possibly be. Next to Amelia Earhart’s famous words, ‘One thing’s for sure, I ain’t getting lost.’”
Watch Colbert’s full monologue below.
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.
