Stephen Colbert Moderates All-Trump Debate on ‘Late Show’

In the run-up to the event, Trump claimed Fox News apologized to him while the network claimed the Trump campaign asked for a $5 million donation to Trump’s charities. Using clips from Trump’s interviews, campaign speeches and past debates, Colbert shows the discrepancy in Trump’s strong opinions while asking him about Ted Cruz, Iowa and Hillary Clinton.

That prediction, of course, proved way off the mark, even if Fox News didn’t hit the lofty viewership it had in the opening debate August 6 in Cleveland. “Did you plan that?”

The billionaire refused to participate in the debate out of anger that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was a moderator.

While presidential candidate Donald Trump was not present at the Republican debate Thursday night, he was still the most mentioned candidate on Twitter.

Data released by Google after the debate suggested that search interest in Donald Trump still far surpassed his other rivals.

On the web, there were indications that Trump dominated political conversations even without being present at the debate.

After a back and forth between Trump and the network, the Republican presidential front-runner suddenly announced he would instead host a fundraiser for veterans at the same time as the debate. Ted Cruz “got really pummeled” by the rest of the field. “Tonight, it is Donald vs. Trump, or as they are known by their celebrity couple name, Dump”.

Some viewers were likely watching the debate on the big screen while keeping an eye on Trump’s event via their smart phones.

Thursday night marked the second lowest rated GOP debate of the season.

And of course there’s Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who went from “doing a great job” in 2011 to being “not very good at what she does” and “highly overrated” this year.

Also, the debate topped all TV Thursday night in total viewers, including all broadcast shows. The peak viewership came on a Tuesday last October, when CNN drew 15.8 million viewers.

But with the three candidates stagnant around 10 percent in most New Hampshire polls, no one has emerged from the pack to threaten Trump, who has led every New Hampshire poll by double-digits since October.