In the late-night landscape of white guys in suits interviewing famous white guys in suits, Stephen Colbert stands out. Not because he isn’t another white guy in a suit — he is — but because his list of guests is far more diverse. According to a statistical analysis by the number-crunchers at FiveThirtyEight, Colbert’s eclectic assortment of guests differs pretty substantially from those of his rivals, Jimmys Fallon and Kimmel. They parsed his first 100 days behind the Late Show desk and found that, while the Jimmys lead a cavalcade of actors and actresses, with 65.1 percent of Fallon’s guests and 68.7 percent of Kimmel’s being actors, Colbert’s interviews only comprise 42.8 percent actors. Colbert tends to interview more political figures than his loquacious rivals, with 11.4 percent of his guests being political, compared to 3.3 percent for Fallon and 2.2 percent for Kimmel. Colbert also interviews more writers — 9.6 percent for Colbert, 1.4 for Fallon, and a paltry 0.6 for Kimmel. Colbert is also the only one to interview business figures, with 6.1 percent of his guests qualifying, as well as religious figures, with .09 percent, and astronauts, with .04 percent. He has yet to speak with a reality star or an animal trainer, unlike Fallon and Kimmel, though Will Ferrell did bring a bunch of exotic birds with him. The one problem with Colbert’s list of guests? Not so many women, given the pervasive masculinity of American politics. 66.4 percent of his segments feature men, which tops Fallon at 61.9 percent and Kimmel at 60.3 percent.
