Screenshots: NBC, Comedy Central, ABC
The numbers are in, and when it comes to YouTube success, it was hard to compete with Jon Stewart in 2025.
A crunch of YouTube stats from each of the major nightly late-night talkers—The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night, and The Daily Show—shows that few can match Stewart when it comes to driving views on the platform.
All told, The Daily Show accounted for an impressive 15 of the top 20 most-watched YouTube clips across the five shows. Stewart, who recently renewed his contract with Comedy Central for another year, appears in 14 of those rankings thanks to his Monday-night monologues. His tongue-in-cheek “Trump-compliant” monologue, delivered in response to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, wound up The Daily Show’s highest-performing video of the year. With 12.54 million views, it ranks as the third most-watched clip across all five shows.
But Stewart wasn’t the only host from The Daily Show’s rotating lineup to land in the top 20. In addition to Stewart’s 14 appearances, the show logged a 15th entry with a monologue from Ronny Chieng. Chieng’s coverage of China’s response to tariffs imposed by Trump drew 9.54 million views, making it the ninth most-watched clip of the year among the nightly programs.
Even so, The Daily Show fell just short of claiming the year’s top spot.
That honor went to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, though the video in question barely features the host at all. The most-viewed clip of the year is a performance of the KPop Demon Hunters hit “Golden” by HUNTR/X, which racked up a mammoth 48 million views.
KPop Demon Hunters wasn’t the only cultural moment to propel late-night clips to YouTube success. ABC’s suspension and reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel Live! generated massive viewership across several shows. Kimmel’s return monologue was the second most-watched clip of the year, with more than 23 million views, while his reaction to new threats from Trump the following night also cracked the top 20 with 7.82 million views.
The year’s third most-popular clip also stemmed from the Kimmel drama: Stewart’s aforementioned “Trump-approved” monologue. Stephen Colbert’s reaction to the situation likewise made the list, ranking as the 16th most-watched clip with 9.40 million views.
Colbert’s own late-night turmoil also drew eyeballs to YouTube as he and his peers reacted to the cancellation of The Late Show. While Colbert’s announcement video brought in a relatively modest 5.8 million views, the reaction monologue he delivered on the following episode—after days of media speculation that Trump had pressured Paramount to axe the show—garnered 11.42 million views. Stewart’s own response, as a friend of Colbert and executive producer of The Late Show, performed nearly as well, bringing in 10.46 million views for The Daily Show.
Regardless of the show, the data underscores one clear takeaway: late-night monologues remain prime real estate. Among the most-viewed YouTube clips of the year, all but two were monologues—the HUNTR/X performance and a Daily Show interview segment.
The full list of YouTube’s top twenty most-viewed late-night clips in 2025 follows below:
EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami from KPop Demon Hunters: Golden (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) — 48.05M views
Jimmy Kimmel is Back (Jimmy Kimmel Live!)— 23.29M views
Jon Stewart’s Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 12.54M views
The Gloves Are Off… (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)— 11.42M views
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Inauguration and Elon Musk’s Nazi Salute (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 10.49M views
Jon Stewart Reacts to Colbert’s Cancellation & Trump’s ‘Bawdy’ Epstein Doodles (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 10.46M views
Jon Stewart Takes on DOGE’s Misguided Budget Cuts (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 9.91M views
Jon Stewart & John Oliver Welcome America to Its Trump Monarchy Era (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 9.56M views
China Strikes Back at Tariffs by Roasting JD Vance & Selling Out Luxury Retailers (Daily Show; Ronny Chieng) — 9.54M
“Trump Threatens Jimmy Kimmel & ABC…” (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) — 9.40M views
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Heel Turn on Zelenskyy… (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 9.05M views
Jon Stewart on Trump’s 3rd Term Plans (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 8.80M views
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Botched Tariff Rollout & The Stock Market’s Meltdown (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 8.33M views
Jon on Trump’s First 100 Days… (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 8.01M views
Jon Stewart on Elon Musk’s Black-Eyed Exit & Trump’s Insane New Biden Conspiracy (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 7.87M views
We Are All Jimmy Kimmel (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) — 7.82M views
Jon on Trump’s Trade War, The War on DEI & Myth of ‘Meritocracy’ (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 7.69M views
Jon Stewart on Israel’s ‘Urgent’ Iran Strike, Minnesota Murders & MAGA’s Blame Game (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 7.59M views
“Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism” (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 7.53M views
Mark Carney – Canada Not Interested in Trump’s Offer (Daily Show; Jon Stewart) — 7.35M views