Controversy has been good for Stephen Colbert’s ratings

By Esther Zuckerman | May 10, 2017 | 3:36pm

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Stephen Colbert has done well for himself in the age of Donald Trump, pulling in impressive ratings and conquering his lip syncing late-night rival. And it turns out that the controversy stemming from his Trump attacks has only helped his case: His numbers went up amid last week’s #FireColbert fracas. If you forgot, last Monday Colbert fired off a bunch of Trump attacks, including one in which he said, “the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.” Though Colbert himself all but admitted later that the wording could be construed as homophobic—and acknowledged that he would change it if he had the chance—he refused to kowtow to the Trump supporters who want him off the air.

And too bad for them, because CBS probably isn’t inclined to get rid of someone doing so well. As CNN Money reports, Colbert averaged 2.8 million viewers that Monday. By the following episode, that had gone up to 3.3 million, and over the course of the week he pulled in an average of 3.06 million eyeballs. That put him up 12 percent from the prior week, and gave him his biggest win over Jimmy Fallon since he assumed The Late Show gig back in September 2015. So, yeah, Colbert is likely not going anywhere.