CBS might just be axing its biggest asset.
Stephen Colbert, whose Late Show was unceremoniously canceled by Paramount just before Donald Trump’s billionaire buddy, Skydance CEO David Ellison, acquired the parent company, has pope-level popularity, according to the poll.
NBC News surveyed 1,000 registered voters in a poll published on Monday and found that Colbert trailed only Pope Leo the Fourteenth in favorability.
Participants rated a fixed list of “Public Figures, Parties, and Concepts” between Feb. 27 and March 3 as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative. Colbert came out with a net +10 favorability score, behind the pope’s +34, making them the only figures rated to achieve net positives.
Behind the pope and Colbert is Marco Rubio, who at net -7 is still the third most popular figure in the poll. JD Vance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Donald Trump, all fall lower on the list.
The news comes as Colbert’s long-running Late Show approaches its final episode in May. Last year, Paramount announced that the Trump foe’s late-night show would end and that the axing was “purely a financial decision.” Critics tied the firing to its timing, as the host had called out his show’s parent company on air for “bribing” the president just days before the cancellation announcement.
In November, the Catholic TV host revealed that the pope would be his dream guest before his show ends. He “always wanted to interview” a pope, he told GQ. “I really wanted to interview Francis. He seemed like a very interesting cat.” He continued, trying to convince the new Chicago-born Pope to sit down with him, “Daddio. Leo, come on. Chicago. Let’s hit some deep dish. We’ll go to a Sox game.”
He added at the time, “I mean, I got nine months left. If there’s one person I could talk to… I’d even go to Rome. You know what? I would do that for him. I would even go to Rome. I hear it’s a nice place.”
Colbert’s favorability across the political spectrum is relevant to comments he made to Seth Meyers in January, when he addressed rumors of a potential run for office after The Late Show ends.
“If there is some way for me to serve the American people in some way that could possibly be greater than a late-night television show, I would consider that,” he said.
“Obviously, I mean, that’s something I have to discuss with my faith leader and my family,” he added.
