As a precautionary measure, late-night host Stephen Colbert has opted to do away with the live audience for the time being and just rest his show on the shoulders of his own star power.

From the looks of things, it’s not doing him any favors. Without his audience of clapping seals, he’s got no one to laugh at his Trump-bashing comedic stylings — or applaud his pushing ChiCom propaganda:

Clip of @StephenAtHome doing a monologue from home, during which he says Trump calling the Coronavirus “the Chinese virus” is “a very racist term” pic.twitter.com/gQ3zb3PG6A — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 18, 2020

Nice that he still paused for laughter and applause, though.

China’s information minister blamed the United Statrs for this virus in a conspiracy. Colbert and more journalists seem less bothered by that. Ask why that is. https://t.co/U0wVeJYeyi — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 18, 2020

ViacomCBS has billions at stake in China and they've edited content in the past to appease Beijing. Maybe Colbert really believes that eponymous names for viruses are now racist. But that idea sure came onto the scene fast And there's no denying the fiduciary relationship here https://t.co/MBWewyJay8 — John Noonan (@noonanjo) March 18, 2020

Stephen knows where his bread is buttered. And he’ll do anything to keep it buttered, including being a useful idiot:

China definitely lied about this virus. pic.twitter.com/veBXmvHZy7 — kaitlin (@thefactualprep) March 18, 2020

But Orange Man Bad. When that’s the narrative you’ve settled on, the truth just doesn’t seem all that important.

Is he on the CCP payroll now? — ROFL (@BreakitRolfe) March 18, 2020

So Colbert is Xi’s c*ck holster? Isn’t that how this works? — Winston Smith (FTOP_T) (@t_ftop) March 18, 2020