For Stephen Colbert, the late-night honeymoon appears to be over. 
 
 The dose of reality comes upon tracking the last three weeks available on the ratings front. But first, a quick review of where we were and how we got here on the late-night competition front: outside of Colbert’s opening week, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show have beaten his CBS competition every week with plenty of room to spare. No surprise there, as even CBS execs concede they had no illusions of beating Fallon as Colbert and The Late Show find their groove. But that’s not to say Colbert has disappointed anyone at the Tiffany Network, either, finishing a solid second ahead of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in both total viewers and the demo in September and much of October. 
 
 Most importantly for Colbert, he’s found a niche in offering what the Jimmys can’t really offer (particularly Fallon): consistent political satire and more substantive interviews with big political guests (his interview with Joe Biden as the vice president openly displayed his inner conflict on running for for president was widely-praised in this space and pretty much everywhere else). But therein lies the rub: most sit-downs with politicians don’t exactly result in riveting television (outliers like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton to a lesser extent notwithstanding). And Colbert has shown almost no willingness to hit both sides of the aisle even close to equally… it’s simply not in his DNA. 
 
 Consequently, according to a Hollywood Reporter poll just released, Colbert has successfully alienated self-described Republicans who see what’s being offered on a nightly basis and exploring or staying with other options. And with the country as polarized as it is, the host is thereby saying goodbye to half his potential audience, which can’t be a sound business model. 
 
 Per The Hollywood Reporter‘s survey of 1000 late-night viewers aged 18-65, only 17 percent of those identified themselves as Republican watch Colbert, while attracting 47 percent of those who identify as Democrats, a 30-point gap. But more liberals watch late-night TV than stuffy, old conservatives, right? Guess again. In Kimmel’s case, the split is 34 percent Democrats, 33 percent Republicans. In Fallon’s case, it’s 36-31 Democrats. 
 
 Why so even-keeled? Because Kimmel and Fallon go through great lengths to be apolitical. To equally mock or simply find other props and topics to use for comedy outside of political humor and (oftentimes in Colbert’s case) commentary on how stupid/awful/inept Republicans are. It’s a smart approach if the goal is to reach as broad as audience as possible, something Colbert never cared to achieve going back to his Comedy Central days and The Colbert Report. In character, out of character… Colbert is Colbert. And that’s fine on Comedy Central, even downright expected. But network TV? Not so much… 
 
 The ratings result of said approach is now beginning to come to fruition as the bloom comes off the rose ten weeks since his debut. Over the first six weeks since launching, Colbert beat Kimmel by an impressive 40 percent in the demo. But the week of October 19-23 saw Kimmel win the week over Colbert during his now-annual trek to Brooklyn, pushing the CBS host down to third place. The following week, Colbert beat Kimmel, but only by seven percent (“only” because the margin was once 40 percent a few weeks ago). And in the first week on November (2nd-6th), Kimmel won again over Colbert, besting him by 5% in both adults in the key 18-49 rating (0.60 vs. 0.57) and total viewers (2.626 million vs. 2.492 million). That’s a 45-point swing… a disturbing trend for CBS that won’t likely suddenly change now that the Late Show has settled in. Are Colbert’s numbers better than Letterman’s numbers a year ago? Of course, given the low bar. There is a reason why Dave retired (besides age) after all. 
 
 Moving forward for the time being, the margin is slim enough for Colbert to still win some weeks here and Kimmel to take some others there. Both, of course, will be looking up at Fallon, who has made everyone quickly forget–particularly those running things at 30 Rock–about even former #1 Jay Leno sitting in the same chair (decimating Colbert by 60% in 18-49 rating–0.91 vs. 0.57–last week alone). 
 
 The Late Show started off strong, as is usually the case when hype and an adoring press are at your back. But taking a side night-in-and-night-out on the political front is something the great Johnny Carson never did, nor Leno. Both achieved great success in doing so. Colbert is cut from a different cloth. Old Comedy Central habits die hard or not at all. 
 
 He’s now the owner of a 30-point gap between Democrats and Republicans who watch. His competition is almost evenly split in the same poll. 
 
 Stephen Colbert now drops to third place: a result about as predictable as whom and what his political targets will be during each night. 
 
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 Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @JoeConchaTV 
 
 This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author. ||||| Five years ago, in THR's first issue, polling firm Penn Schoen Berland evaluated the post-primetime landscape. Now, with only one host still in his seat, it went back to learn who is watching whom and why the atheists love Stephen Colbert. 
 
 This story first appeared in the Nov. 27 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. 
 
 In November 2010, the first issue of the relaunched Hollywood Reporter magazine included results of an extensive survey of late-night TV viewers. Respondents were asked their honest opinions of the genre's biggest names — NBC's Jay Leno, CBS' David Letterman and Comedy Central's power duo of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, among them. The results revealed aging audiences and high hopes for TBS' new star, Conan O'Brien. Five years later, the late-night landscape is completely different. Only ABC's Jimmy Kimmel remains host of the show he had then, as Jimmy Fallon inherited The Tonight Show, Colbert took over Late Show and new, younger players James Corden, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers are making a play for viewers. 
 
 For the magazine's fifth anniversary, THR, working again with measurement firm Penn Schoen Berland, polled viewers to determine what they watch and why. The firm conducted an online survey Nov. 6 through Nov. 10 of 1,000 late-night viewers ages 18 to 65 (split equally between men and women). "What a tumultuous five years it has been!" says lead pollster Jon Penn, noting the biggest winner has been Fallon: "He's the unpredictable, cool dude you want to be friends with, and his silly, witty and nonoffen­sive humor is connecting with Leno fans and young, married, moderate women." 
 
 The Great Late-Night Poll: Where the Hosts Stand Now ||||| 
 
 Stephen Colbert is host of the 'The Late Show' on CBS. (Invision/AP) 
 
 The expectation was laid out, plain as can be, in the first reports of Stephen Colbert’s hiring by CBS to succeed David Letterman as host of “The Late Show.” 
 
 From the New York Times on April 11, 2014: 
 
 The news of Mr. Colbert’s appointment inflamed conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh, who said CBS had “declared war on the heartland of America.” But CBS executives made it clear that they expected Mr. Colbert to broaden his appeal when he moved to the medium of late night on a network. 
 
 Broader appeal. That’s what Colbert — famous for his satirical portrayal of a conservative commentator on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” — is supposed to be going for in his new job. It’s important because, even on an average night on CBS, Colbert is playing to a bigger audience (more than 3 million viewers) than he did on his best night on cable (2.5 million for his curtain call last December). 
 
 Back when he was hired, there was a good deal of chatter about just how liberal Colbert actually was. He admitted during his time at the "Daily Show" that he had discovered his liberal politics there, but even some conservatives seemed to respect his brand of comedy, and there was actually relatively little backlash against a guy whose faux conservative alter ego was hardly flattering for the right side of the political spectrum. 
 
 And yet, two months into the gig, the 51-year-old funnyman could be alienating real-life conservatives with his persistent brand of lefty wisecracks. And that could be a problem for CBS, which, like all of the major networks, will want to attract Democratic and Republican viewers throughout the next year of presidential electioneering. 
 
 In the opening week of November, for the first time since his Sept. 8 debut, Colbert fell to third place in the critical 18-to-49-year-old ratings demographic. Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” has been the runaway leader for most of the fall season, but this was the first time Colbert trailed ABC’s "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Last week, it happened again. 
 
 A survey of late-night comedy viewers, conducted Nov. 6-10 and published Friday by the Hollywood Reporter, offered insight into what might be going on. Colbert’s CBS audience is 47 percent Democrat and just 17 percent Republican, according to the findings of D.C.-based polling firm Penn Schoen Berland. 
 
 Compare Colbert’s partisan breakdown with the nearly even splits of Fallon (36 percent Democrat/31 percent Republican) and Kimmel (34/33), and it’s apparent that Colbert’s competitors do the whole broad-appeal thing better than he does. For now, at least. 
 
 CBS did not respond to an inquiry about Colbert’s ability to attract a wide audience during the campaign. But the current dramatic skew could have something to do with stuff like this: 
 
 Remember, as we’ve already told you, opposition to the resettlement of Syrian refugees is hardly a fringe position. 
 
 There’s also stuff like this: 
 
 Support for same-sex marriage has risen dramatically in recent years, but more than a third of the country still opposes it. Again, this isn't a fringe population. 
 
 Colbert knows how to bring down the house by painting conservatives as a bunch of backward xenophobes. He’s one of the best at it. But huge chunks of the electorate probably won’t be laughing along — or, worse, even tuning in. Not unless he balances things out.
– Ten weeks after his debut as host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert is falling behind in the late night race, Mediaite reports. And the answer why seems obvious: "Old Comedy Central habits die hard." Colbert is alienating conservative viewers with jokes at the expense of such targets as people who oppose gay marriage or the resettlement of Syrian refugees, according to the Washington Post. A new survey of 1,000 late-night viewers from the Hollywood Reporter found only 17% of people tuning into Colbert are Republicans. And 72% of Colbert viewers say they'd vote for Clinton over Trump. Meanwhile the split between Democrat and Republican is pretty much even among viewers of Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel. That could be important for the future of CBS' Late Show because—while it was always getting trounced by NBC and Fallon—it's now being beaten regularly by ABC and Kimmel, Mediaite reports. Colbert is finding a niche in political satire—something both Kimmel and Fallon tend to stay away from—but he's going after Republican targets far more often. While that was expected on Comedy Central, on network TV it has "a result about as predictable as whom and what his political targets will be during each night." According to the Post, Colbert needs to find balance if he's going to succeed on CBS. "Colbert knows how to bring down the house by painting conservatives as a bunch of backward xenophobes," the Post writes. "But huge chunks of the electorate probably won’t be laughing along"