--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: 10. "Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night: Democracy's Series Finale," Showtime image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte390d1f641e6a081/6988aee7bc6cfc70ae3df5bb/gettyimages-6158540281.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 22, 2016 # 10\. "Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night: Democracy's Series Finale," Showtime by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  NEW YORK - OCTOBER 19: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Wednesday 's 10/19/16 taping in New York. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) NEW YORK - OCTOBER 19: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Wednesday 's 10/19/16 taping in New York. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)Scott Kowalchyk—CBS /Getty Images This election special had pretty clearly been planned with a different electoral outcome in mind—as host Colbert announced state after state rallying behind candidate Trump, the live audience groaned, less and less hopefully each time. This wasn’t well-made TV, exactly: Its seams showed throughout, and a panel discussion fairly transparently meant to hail the election of Hillary Clinton found comedians left without jokes at a pained, bitter loss for words. And yet this special’s documentation of a particular, and common, experience of election night 2016 made it a raw and revealing piece of television, even more so than network news broadcasts that moved quickly to rationalize the biggest political upset in generations. Just about the only thing about the special that doesn’t ring true to viewers still stunned by Trump’s election is the episode-ending benediction about the civic ties that hold Americans together—the shock, though, endures. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-list-2016/4574994/stephen-colberts-live-election-night-democracys-series-finale-showtime/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-list-2016/4574994/stephen-colberts-live-election-night-democracys-series-finale-showtime/"},"headline":"10. \"Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night: Democracy's Series Finale,\" Showtime","datePublished":"2016-11-22T18:58:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:18:37.888Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-list-2016/4574994/stephen-colberts-live-election-night-democracys-series-finale-showtime/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte390d1f641e6a081/6988aee7bc6cfc70ae3df5bb/gettyimages-6158540281.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte390d1f641e6a081/6988aee7bc6cfc70ae3df5bb/gettyimages-6158540281.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-list-2016/4574994/stephen-colberts-live-election-night-democracys-series-finale-showtime/","name":"10. \"Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night: Democracy's Series Finale,\" Showtime"}}]}] ```