Friend of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, CNN’s Jake Tapper appeared on the program last night to chat about politics, as well as his recent Twitter war with the beleaguered Bill O’Reilly.
Colbert kicked off the interview by having some fun with The Lead host, showing off an apple.
“Oh man, that’s an apple,” Tapper said to a rousing round of applause. “That’s an apple.”
New York’s go-to fruit is the de-facto logo of CNN’s new “Facts First” marketing campaign, which is seemingly aimed at bringing Pres. Trump attacks on the network to a full stop.
The conversation then turned to Sen. Jeff Flake (R – AZ) and his speech earlier in the day announcing his retirement. Sen. Flake called out the governing wing of the GOP to “wake up from the fever of Trumpism.”
Tapper reminded Colbert and the audience that Sen. Flake and fellow Arizona Sen. John McCain never really supported Pres. Trump in the first place and that Flake’s imminent departure “could actually be a good thing for Trump.”
Discussion later turned to Bill O’Reilly, and Tapper’s response to O’Reilly’s tweet: “Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go.”
“Low” would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it — humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017
For the record, Tapper’s ratings are actually up year-over-year.
Tapper’s rebuttal has gone viral, and seems to have more meaning than ever, particularly based on recent events.
Additionally, last night’s Late Show broadcast with drew a 3.0 overnight metered market rating, No. 1 across all of late night and the show’s highest rating overall since Aug. 14. It was also the show’s highest-rated Tuesday since May 9.
Guess Tapper’s influence on ratings is better than O’Reilly thought.