Stephen Colbert took note Thursday of the insanely high ratings the reboot of ABC’s Roseanne received when it premiered this week—prompting a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump himself. “I would like 18 million people to watch my show,” the Late Show host said Thursday night.
Given that much of Roseanne’s success has been attributed to its Trump-loving protagonist, he said, sincerely, “I agree with Donald Trump about something: CNN lies.”
From there, Colbert explained that after Dana Carvey debuted his impression of Trump’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, on Wednesday night’s show, CNN ran the clip with the headline “Look who’s playing John Bolton on ‘SNL.’”
“Fake news!” Colbert said in his best Trump voice. “I take everything back! I apologize. Donald Trump is a great president.”
“C’mon, CNN, this isn’t SNL,” he continued. “Unless you think S-N-L stands for ‘Stephen’s Nightly Laughs.’” To help CNN out, he gave the network some hints why the clip of Carvey did not come from Saturday Night Live: “It was a Wednesday, we tape during the daytime and we’re not live. You got three things wrong in three letters.”
“Still, it’s nice just to be recognized,” he concluded. “So thank you, MSNBC.”