Late-Night TV Directed 87 Percent of Senate Jokes at Republicans, Study Finds
An independent content analysis covering nearly two months of programming documents a measurable partisan imbalance in how four major late-night shows covered 2026 Senate races, a finding that...
Four major late-night television programs directed 45 of 52 jokes about 2026 U.S. Senate candidates at Republican candidates between September 8 and October 31, 2026, according to a content analysis reported by the New York Post on October 31, 2026. That figure represents 86.5 percent of all Senate-related jokes on the programs surveyed, rounded in the study to 87 percent. The New York Post attributed the findings to a new analysis but did not identify the organization that conducted it or describe its full methodology in the portion of the article available for review.
The four programs included in the count were Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers." All four programs air in late-night time slots and reach combined audiences in the tens of millions per week, according to Nielsen data reported by Variety across the 2025 to 2026 television season.
The raw count reported was 45 jokes targeting Republican Senate candidates and 7 jokes targeting Democratic Senate candidates over the roughly seven-week window. The Post did not publish the full underlying dataset, the names of specific Senate candidates who were the subjects of jokes, or the specific episodes from which the jokes were drawn. The Congressional Times was unable to independently verify the episode-by-episode tallies because the source analysis was not publicly released as of publication.
The study period, September 8 through October 31, coincides with the general election advertising window for Senate contests across more than two dozen states where competitive races are underway in the 2026 midterm cycle. Republicans are defending seats while Democrats seek to regain a Senate majority, making the coverage window directly relevant to competitive electoral outcomes.
Content analyses of late-night television have been conducted periodically by academic researchers and media watchdog organizations of varying ideological orientations. A 2017 study by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University found that late-night comedy programs directed approximately 90 percent of their political humor at then-President Donald Trump during his first 100 days in office, a period when Trump was a Republican. That study covered a different set of programs and a different time period, and is not directly comparable to the 2026 analysis.
A separate 2016 analysis by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University found that jokes about presidential candidates in that election cycle favored targeting Republicans over Democrats by a ratio of approximately 2 to 1. The methodology of that analysis, including its definitions of what constitutes a political joke, was published in peer-reviewed form.
The current study's sponsoring organization, precise methodology, definitions, and intercoder reliability measures are not publicly available as of October 31, 2026. Whether the study counted only jokes explicitly naming a candidate, or also jokes referencing a candidate's party, issue positions, or surrogates, is unknown. That distinction can materially affect the final ratio in any content analysis of this kind.
Representatives for ABC, NBC, and Comedy Central did not issue public statements responding to the study's findings as of the publication of this article. Producers of the individual programs also had not commented publicly.
The Federal Communications Commission does not regulate the content of cable programs such as "The Daily Show" under equal-time provisions. Broadcast programs including those on ABC and NBC are subject to the FCC's equal-time rule under 47 U.S.C. Section 315, but that statute applies to candidate appearances, not to jokes or editorial content about candidates. Late-night comedy programs have historically qualified for the "bona fide entertainment" exemption from equal-time requirements under FCC precedent.
What remains unknown is the identity of the organization that conducted the analysis, its full data set, and whether its methodology has been submitted for independent peer review. Publication of the complete episode log and coding rubric would allow independent researchers to replicate or contest the 87 percent figure. The Congressional Times will update this article if the full study is released publicly.