Stephen Colbert Pokes Fun at the RNC's Low Ratings

The Republican National Convention continued on Tuesday night with addresses from Vice President Mike Pence, first lady Melania Trump, and two of Donald Trump's adult children, to name a few. Late-night TV shows also continued their coverage of the event, particularly The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the latter of which has been airing live after each night of the RNC and the DNC.

Trevor Noah took aim at the RNC's messaging about Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Colbert's post-RNC response was a mixture of both boredom and dismay. Read on to find out their reactions after night two of the RNC.

Stephen Colbert Roasts RNC: 'That's Not a Political Party, That's a Cult'

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Noah's show on Tuesday night wasn't live, but he did react to what he'd seen of the RNC from its first night. The Daily Show host began by focusing on the convention's positive spin on Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Going into the convention, I thought it was going to be tough for Donald Trump to sell himself for another four years. I mean, mostly because we live in a plague-scarred hellscape where 180,000 people have died, and we can't go to a movie or hug our grandparents," Noah explained. "But then, I watched the convention. And guys, it turns out that Donald Trump has actually done a really good job by preventing all of that from happening." 

"Essentially, they tried to convince everyone that this massive failure is actually a massive achievement," Noah said of the RNC's coronavirus messaging. 

The host compared the 2020 RNC to what happened at the same event four years before, when all eyes were on Hillary Clinton and the 2012 Benghazi attack. "It's especially crazy considering that at the last RNC, all they talked about was the four dead Americans in Benghazi," Noah said. "But now, they're acting like Trump did a great job by only having 45,000 Benghazis. But I guess it's true; without Trump taking any action, millions more Americans could have died. So good on Republicans for seeing the glass of bleach half full."

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Colbert's live show on Tuesday began with more thoughts on the first night of the RNC -- specifically its TV ratings, which were lower than the ratings for the first night of the DNC.

"Now, you know Trump's gotta be upset because last night, TV viewership was way down. The GOP drew just 15.8 million people, while the first night of the DNC attracted 18.7 million viewers," Colbert noted. "Unfortunately for Trump, Nielsen doesn't have an electoral college, nor does it count the millions of people with their TV sets off who still heard Kimberly Guilfoyle's tortured cries echo through their dreams."

As for night two of the event, Colbert was especially miffed by the fact that White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow referred to the pandemic in the past tense in his speech. "Why are you using the past tense?" Colbert asked. "You know we still can't shake hands, and the most popular college dorm is 'childhood bedroom,' right?" 

The Late Show host also took digs at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech from Jerusalem and Melania Trump's attire for her keynote speech. 

Colbert concluded by noting a major shift in tone for the RNC's second evening. "To recap, last night was loud and alarming. Tonight was slow and boring," Colbert said.