Jon Stewart had a stable of people he ridiculed as well, long before Trumpy came on to the scene. And if you go back far enough, Ted Koppel did Nightline every night for years and years, starting with the Iran hostage crisis. In fact, one could argue that Koppel / Nightline (which was serious) got people in the habit of watching serious TV late at night, and over time gave an opening to people like Colbert and Stewart. That’s contrasted to Johnny Carson, Letterman, Leno, and the ‘entertainment – variety’ types of shows, which made no effort to be serious or topical.