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The extent of Stephen Colbert’s liberal bias has been highlighted by the frequent appearances of progressive guests on his program, with one individual joining him more than 20 times.
Notorious Donald Trump critic Anderson Cooper appeared 21 times on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ which was suddenly axed by CBS last week.
After taking over from David Letterman in 2015, Colbert’s show is set to conclude in May 2026, as confirmed by network executives and Paramount, its new parent company.
Colbert, who is 61, previously criticized Paramount Global for reaching a $16 million defamation lawsuit settlement with Donald Trump, describing the deal as a “big fat bribe” in the opening monologue of his show.
And now the curtains have been drawn back on just how many left-wing journalists, hosts and Trump-hating liberals have joined Colbert inside New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater.
At least 200 episodes of ‘The Late Show’ featured popular left-wing media stars, including Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Jake Tapper, Niccole Wallace, Joy Reid and George Stephanopoulos, among others, Fox News Digital tallied.
Not only has Cooper been on Colbert’s show nearly two dozen times from 2016 to 2025, but the journalist threw his support behind him on Monday during a cameo with other famed talk show hosts replicating the viral Coldplay concert moment.
In the clip, a cartoon sketch of Trump was seen hugging a Paramount symbol, seemingly getting embarrassed when cameras panned to him just as former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR chief Kristin Cabot did.
Stephen Colbert had a number of liberal, Trump-hating, guests on his show over the years
Anderson Cooper, a veteran reporter with CNN, appeared on Colbert’s show 20 times, according to a report by IMDB. (Pictured: Anderson and Colbert in 2019)
While Cooper appeared on the show numerous times, he is not the only one who has done so.
Jake Tapper, who was recently been pushed into the spotlight over his new book revealing former President Joe Biden’s ‘decline,’ joined Colbert 12 times on his show.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow appeared eight times, along with ‘The View’ co-host Whoopi Goldberg.
Colbert also had several of his CBS colleagues join him on stage, including Gayle King with 14 appearances, John Dickerson with 19, Norah O’Donnell with six and Margaret Brennan with three.
The talk show host also had on Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, the former Obama staffers who started the ‘Pod Saves America’ political podcast. They joined him 11 times.
Joy Reid, whose MSNBC show was canceled in February, appeared in four episodes of his show.
MSNBC analysts John Heilemann and Alex Wagner were both on the show at least 10 times, some of which were occurred as they hosted the political docuseries ‘The Circus.’
The series aired on Showtime, the sister network of Paramount.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (pictured in May) appeared eight times, along with ‘The View’ co-host Whoopi Goldberg
Jake Tapper (pictured in May), who was recently pushed into the spotlight over his new book revealing former President Joe Biden’s ‘decline,’ joined Colbert 12 times on his show
Colbert also had several of his CBS colleagues join him on stage, including Gayle King (pictured in 2017) with 14 appearances
Although he appeared to keep his CBS co-workers close, Colbert did not shy away from inviting rival liberal media stars from coming on his show.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who put the network in the hot seat after saying the Trump was found ‘liable for rape’, made it on two episodes.
The network agreed to pay Trump $16 million after the president sued over Stephanopoulos’s remark.
Trump was not found liable of rape in the case involving writer E. Jean Carroll. He was find liable of sexual abuse.
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie joined once along with Craig Melvin, the new Today Show anchor.
‘Morning Joe’ co-hosts and couple Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who are known for their critiques of Trump, made four joint appearances.
MSNBC political commentator Nicolle Wallace made three appearances.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos (pictured in 2012 with Colbert), who put the network in the hot seat after saying the Trump was found ‘liable for rape,’ made it on two episodes
‘Morning Joe’ co-hosts and couple Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (pictured in 2020), who are known for the critique of Trump, made four joint appearances
Her colleagues, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki and CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour did the same.
Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Kaitlan Collins, Jim Acosta, and Van Jones are just a few other CNN and MSNBC stars who have joined him over his talk show career.
Steven Zeitchik, senior editor of technology and politics at The Hollywood Reporter argued in a new piece that Colbert’s defiant stance against the Trump administration will sway the voting body at the Television Academy.
Zeitchik speculated that the increased attention and Colbert’s willingness to stand up to Trump could result in The Late Show finally snagging an ‘sympathy’ Emmy win.
Colbert won an Emmy for his work on The Colbert Report, a satirical show that ran on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2014.
After he replaced David Letterman on The Late Show, the program was nominated for the most Outstanding Talk Series at the Emmys from 2017 to 2022.
Every year during that period, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won the award.
Oliver is arguably the most liberal of the late-night bunch and often spotlights politics on his show.
