Season 1 (2005)

7.76 avg 32 episodes 8.4 → 8.1 22 min avg

Season 1 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Stone Phillips	8.4	45
2	Lesley Stahl	8.3	27
3	Fareed Zakaria	8.3	28
4	Jim Cramer	7.8	24
5	Lou Dobbs	7.8	24
6	Greg Behrendt	7.6	24
7	Neil DeGrasse Tyson	8.1	27
8	Jeff Daniels	7.5	25
9	Monica Crowley	7.6	23
10	Ken Burns	8.2	23
11	Bruce Feiler	7.7	23
12	Bradley Whitford	7.8	25
13	Eliot Spitzer	7.5	23
14	Catherine Crier	7.6	23
15	Mary Roach	7.6	23
16	Cokie Roberts	7.8	24
17	Sen. Bob Kerrey	7.5	23
18	Rev. Al Sharpton	7.5	23
19	Matt Taibbi	7.8	23
20	Tim Robbins	7.1	27
21	Brian Greene	7.6	24
22	Richard Preston	7.8	22
23	Katrina vanden Heuvel	7.7	24
24	Richard Clarke	7.6	23
25	Maureen Dowd	7.5	23
26	Anderson Cooper	7.3	26
27	Craig Crawford	7.7	23
28	Peggy Noonan	7.7	23
29	Harry Smith	7.6	23
30	Bob Costas	8.1	24
31	Dermot Mulroney	8.1	27
32	Mark Cuban	8.1	25

Season 2 (2006)

7.38 avg 161 episodes 7.7 → 7.9 19 min avg

Rebound

Season 2 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Nancy Grace	7.7	24
2	Carl Bernstein	7.5	22
3	John Stossel	7.3	21
4	Ken Miller	7.3	22
5	George Stephanopoulos	7.5	22
6	Andrew Sullivan	7.7	22
7	Frank McCourt	7.4	22
8	Nina Totenberg	7.9	24
9	David Gregory	7.4	21
10	Robin Givhan	7.3	21
11	Norah Vincent	7.3	22
12	Paul Begala	7.8	23
13	Annie Duke	7.7	23
14	Dave Marash	7.9	23
15	Emily Yoffe	7.9	23
16	Christine Todd Whitman	7.8	23
17	Sen. Barbara Boxer	7.6	21
18	James Woolsey	7.3	22
19	Alan Dershowitz	7.3	22
20	George Packer	7.2	21
21	Lama Surya Das	7.8	24
22	Michael Eric Dyson	7.6	23
23	David Brooks	7.3	22
24	Tony Campolo	7.4	21
25	Brett O'Donnell	7.4	21
26	Arianna Huffington	7.6	22
27	Jeffrey Sachs	7.5	21
28	Bob Schieffer	7.7	23
29	Norman Ornstein	7.5	21
30	James Webb	7.4	21
31	Lorraine Bracco	7.7	23
32	Christopher Buckley	7.5	21
33	Keith Olbermann	6.5	25
34	Al Franken	7.2	24
35	Frank Vincent	7.6	21
36	Connie Chung	8.0	25
37	Steve Kroft	7.5	21
38	Dan Senor	7.7	22
39	John Kasich	7.3	21
40	Sen. Gary Hart	7.2	20
41	Michael Brown	7.4	19
42	Bruce Bartlett	7.2	21
43	Robert Greenwald	7.3	21
44	Michael Smerconish	7.4	20
45	Rev. Jesse Jackson	7.3	20
46	Harvey Mansfield	7.2	20
47	Markos Moulitsas	7.3	21
48	Reza Aslan	7.3	21
49	Anthony Romero	7.3	20
50	Caitlin Flanagan	7.2	20
51	Ralph Nader	7.8	23
52	Hugh Hewitt	7.3	21
53	Sam Harris	6.7	22
54	Sebastian Junger	8.0	23
55	Bill Kristol	7.3	21
56	Jon Meacham	7.2	20
57	Gov. Mike Huckabee	7.2	20
58	Paul Rieckhoff	7.2	20
59	Rick Reilly	7.3	21
60	Shere Hite	7.4	21
61	Frank Rich	7.4	22
62	Bill Bastone	7.2	20
63	Madeleine Albright	7.3	20
64	Kevin Phillips	7.3	20
65	Tyson Slocum	8.4	26
66	Jonathan Alter	7.3	20
67	Ted Daeschler	7.3	20
68	Stone Phillips	7.3	21
69	Christiane Amanpour	7.4	20
70	Steven Squyres	7.2	20
71	Steven Johnson	7.4	21
72	Robert F. Kennedy Jr.	7.4	21
73	Tim Flannery	7.3	21
74	David Sirota	7.2	20
75	Michael Pollan	7.3	20
76	Gustavo Arellano	7.3	20
77	Bart Ehrman	7.1	22
78	Bay Buchanan	7.4	20
79	Douglas Brinkley	7.4	21
80	Mark Bowden	7.5	22
81	Chris Matthews	6.5	21
82	Robert Baer	7.5	23
83	Christopher Noxon	7.3	20
84	Amy Sedaris	8.3	74
85	Tony Hawk	7.2	20
86	Mort Zuckerman	7.3	20
87	Ron Suskind	7.2	20
88	Lee Silver	7.2	20
89	Dhani Jones	7.2	20
90	Joe Scarborough	7.0	21
91	Tom Brokaw	7.1	20
92	Howell Raines	7.2	20
93	William A. Donohue	7.9	28
94	Neal Katyal	7.2	20
95	Joe Quesada	7.5	21
96	Ned Lamont	7.3	22
97	Peter Beinart	7.1	21
98	Linda Hirshman	7.2	20
99	Paul Hackett	7.0	22
100	William Rhoden	8.1	68
101	Alexandra Robbins	7.1	20
102	Eli Pariser	7.6	21
103	Ramesh Ponnuru	7.7	22
104	David Gergen	7.5	21
105	Morgan Spurlock	7.8	24
106	Neil Young	7.6	22
107	Geoffrey Nunberg	7.3	19
108	Paul Krugman	7.3	20
109	Gideon Yago	7.3	20
110	Janna Levin	7.5	21
111	Martin Short	7.0	19
112	Toby Keith	7.4	19
113	Ken Jennings	7.3	20
114	Bill Simmons	6.5	21
115	Will Power	7.6	22
116	Frank Rich	7.2	19
117	James Carville	7.3	20
118	Daniel Ellsberg	7.3	20
119	Arianna Huffington	7.8	19
120	Ted Danson	6.4	21
121	Lowell Bergman	7.3	20
122	Steve Wozniak	7.6	22
123	Michael Lewis	7.1	19
124	Andy Stern	7.3	21
125	Byron Dorgan	7.3	20
126	Amy Goodman	7.3	19
127	Randy Newman	7.6	20
128	Ariel Levy	6.9	28
129	George Lucas	8.6	80
130	Brian Schweitzer	7.1	21
131	Barry Scheck	7.0	20
132	Richard Dawkins	8.3	30
133	David Kuo	7.3	19
134	Peter Agre	7.1	19
135	Barry Manilow	7.2	19
136	Tim Robbins	6.9	24
137	Penn Jillette	8.2	21
138	Ron Reagan	7.3	19
139	Mark Halperin	7.1	19
140	Live Broadcast with the Daily Show	7.8	22
141	Jeff Greenfield	7.4	22
142	Dean Kamen	7.2	20
143	Dan Rather	7.3	20
144	Jeff Swartz	7.2	19
145	Al Franken/Mike Novacek	7.2	19
146	Richard Linklater	7.4	21
147	Jim Lehrer	7.3	20
148	Harry Shearer	7.7	19
149	Nora Ephron	7.1	20
150	Mike Lupica	7.2	19
151	Will Wright	7.2	19
152	Steven Levitt	7.1	19
153	John Sexton	6.9	20
154	Elizabeth de la Vega/Francis S. Collins	7.1	19
155	Peter Singer	7.4	21
156	Dan Savage	6.8	22
157	Doris Kearns Goodwin	7.6	20
158	Daniel Pinchbeck	7.3	20
159	Jack Welch	7.2	19
160	Deepak Chopra	7.6	20
161	Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon	7.9	21

Season 3 (2007)

7.13 avg 137 episodes 7.3 → 7.3 21 min avg

Mid-peak

Season 3 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Ethan Nadelman	7.3	18
2	Jim Cramer	7.0	17
3	David Camp	7.2	18
4	Judy Woodruff	7.0	17
5	Alex Kuczynski	7.2	18
6	Dinesh D'Souza	6.2	18
7	Richard Clarke	7.2	17
8	Bill O'Reilly	6.7	25
9	Thomas Schaller	6.9	16
10	Michael Steele	6.9	17
11	Lou Dobbs	6.9	18
12	Mike Wallace	6.9	18
13	Barry Lando	7.2	18
14	Donna Shalala	7.0	18
15	Jed Babbin	7.0	17
16	Sen. Charles Schumer	7.3	18
17	Wendy Kopp	7.0	17
18	Charlie LeDuff	7.0	17
19	Steven Pinker	7.0	17
20	Chris Hedges	7.4	18
21	Michael Oppenheimer	7.1	17
22	Sheryl WuDunn	7.0	17
23	Lance Armstrong	7.0	18
24	Shashi Tharoor	7.0	20
25	Zev Chafets	7.0	17
26	Dr. Craig Venter	7.0	17
27	Nina Jablonski	7.0	17
28	Larry King	7.1	17
29	Mara Vanderslice	7.0	18
30	Mark Frauenfelder	7.0	17
31	Michael Specter	7.1	17
32	Ted Koppel	7.1	18
33	Nicholas D. Kristof	6.9	17
34	Michael Eric Dyson	7.5	17
35	Ed Viesturs	7.0	17
36	Ayaan Hirsi Ali	7.2	17
37	Jerome Groopman	7.0	17
38	Willie Nelson	7.4	18
39	Benjamin Barber	7.0	17
40	Katie Couric	6.3	18
41	John Perry Barlow	7.0	17
42	Madeline Albright, James Fallows	7.0	17
43	Jabari Asim	7.0	17
44	Clive James	7.0	17
45	Katrina vanden Heuvel	7.2	17
46	Jeannette Walls	7.0	17
47	Vali Nasr	7.1	17
48	Dr. Richard Land	7.1	17
49	John Kerry	7.5	20
50	Elaine Pagels	7.1	17
51	Paulina Porizkova	7.1	18
52	Robert Pinsky/Sean Penn	7.6	19
53	Mike Huckabee/Russell Simmons	7.2	17
54	Andrew Weil	7.3	18
55	David Walker	7.0	18
56	Madeleine Bordallo/Tom Wolfe	7.1	18
57	Neil deGrasse Tyson/Bill Bradley	7.4	19
58	Malcolm Gladwell	7.2	18
59	Mike Gravel/Gina Kolata	7.2	17
60	Conn Iggulden	7.1	17
61	Richard Preston	7.1	18
62	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	7.2	17
63	Salman Rushdie/Jane Fonda	7.8	31
64	Jann Wenner	8.5	33
65	William Langewiesche	7.6	44
66	Walter Isaacson	6.8	19
67	Howard Dean	7.5	18
68	Tom DeLay/Randy Kearse	7.0	17
69	Jared Diamond	7.1	17
70	John Amaechi	7.4	18
71	Bay Buchanan/Bob Deans	7.2	17
72	Jimmy Wales	7.3	18
73	Jan Schakowsky/Leon Botstein	7.1	17
74	Jessica Valenti	7.4	18
75	Carl Bernstein	7.8	19
76	Cullen Murphy	7.1	18
77	Michael D. Gershon	7.3	18
78	Josh Wolf	7.2	18
79	Ron Paul	7.1	18
80	Daniel B. Smith	7.1	18
81	Toby Keith	7.9	20
82	Anne-Marie Slaughter	7.1	17
83	Will Schwalbe	7.1	17
84	Vincent Bulgiosi	7.0	18
85	Tom Hayden	7.4	17
86	David France	6.7	18
88	Doug Bailey	7.6	18
89	Episode #3.89	7.0	16
90	Michael Chertoff	6.8	20
91	Episode #3.91	8.2	19
92	Frank Sulloway	6.6	31
93	Episode #3.93	7.0	19
94	Anthony Romero	7.3	19
95	Episode #3.95	6.2	22
96	Bob Shrum	6.8	15
97	Episode #3.97	7.0	16
98	Kathleen Kennedy Townsend	7.0	15
99	Michael Beschloss	7.0	16
100	Michael J. Behe	7.2	15
101	Ian Bogost	6.7	18
102	Tina Brown	7.1	18
103	Judd Apatow	6.8	19
104	Michael F. Jacobson	7.3	19
105	Episode #3.105	6.8	18
106	Michael Wallis	7.0	15
107	Andrew Keen	7.0	15
108	Nathan Sawaya	7.9	21
109	Michael Shermer	7.7	20
110	Richard Branson	7.2	20
111	Thomas Ricks	5.9	24
112	Bjørn Lomborg	6.4	23
113	Garrison Keillor	7.3	18
114	Joel Klein	6.6	23
115	Ed Begley Jr.	7.4	18
116	Susan Sarandon	7.1	18
117	Naomi Wolf	7.3	19
118	Jeffrey Toobin	7.1	18
119	Thomas Friedman	7.3	19
120	John Grisham	7.3	18
121	Tony Bennett	7.6	19
122	David Schwartz	7.1	18
123	Charlie Savage	7.0	18
124	John Mearsheimer	7.2	15
125	Jim Lovell	6.9	18
126	John Kao	7.0	15
127	George Saunders	7.1	18
128	Stephen Colbert	7.2	29
129	Wesley Clark	7.2	18
130	Chris Jordan	7.1	18
131	Paul Glastris	7.8	18
132	Bob Drogin	7.0	19
133	Garry Kasparov	7.7	20
134	Craig Newmark	7.3	18
135	Richard Berman	7.2	18
136	J. Craig Venter	7.2	18
137	Lawrence Wilkerson	7.4	18
138	Walter Kirn	7.3	18

Season 4 (2008)

7.14 avg 143 episodes 6.8 → 7.2

Rebound

Season 4 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Richard Freeman	6.8	17
2	Gary Rosen	6.8	17
3	Matt Taibbi	7.0	17
4	Muhammad Yunus	7.0	17
5	Neil Shubin	6.9	18
6	Jared Cohen	6.8	17
7	Deborah Tannen	6.8	18
8	David Levy	6.6	17
9	Eric Weiner	6.8	19
10	Andrew Young	7.0	19
11	Stephen Colbert's Sport Report	7.4	18
12	Charles Nesson	6.9	18
13	Rick Warren	6.9	17
14	Alex Ross	7.1	17
15	Frans de Waal	7.2	18
16	Andrew Napolitano	7.1	17
17	Jacob Weisberg	7.3	21
18	Bob Dole	7.0	18
19	Tad Devine	7.2	18
20	Mark Moffett	7.2	18
21	Philip Zimbardo	6.7	18
22	Lisa Randall	7.1	18
23	Richard Thompson Ford	7.2	18
24	Leonard Nimoy	8.6	41
25	Henry Louis Gates Jr.	7.0	18
26	Tony Snow	7.2	18
27	Ingrid Newkirk	7.0	18
28	Shashi Tharoor	7.4	18
29	Jennifer 8. Lee	7.0	17
30	Gregory Rodriguez	7.0	17
31	John Legend	7.1	17
32	George McGovern	7.1	17
33	Geraldo Rivera	7.1	18
34	Howard Kurtz	7.0	17
35	Sudhir Venkatesh	7.0	17
36	Samantha Power	7.1	17
37	Carole King	7.4	17
38	Dee Dee Myers	7.0	18
39	Dean Kamen	7.1	18
40	Michael Reynolds	7.0	16
41	Van Jones	7.4	18
42	R.E.M.	7.4	18
43	Clay Shirky	7.0	16
44	Jesse Ventura	7.2	18
45	Madeline Albright	7.0	16
46	Jeff Gore	7.3	17
47	Robin Wright	7.2	16
48	John Legend/Chris Matthews/Michael Nutter	7.1	16
49	The Roots	7.4	16
50	Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders/Edward Rendell	7.0	16
51	Hillary Clinton/John Edwards/Barack Obama	7.0	21
52	James Martin/Bernie Sanders	7.2	16
53	Susan Jacoby	6.9	17
54	Mitch Albom	7.0	18
55	Maria Shriver	7.0	16
56	Leslie Feist	7.2	19
57	Anne Lamott	6.9	16
58	Noah Feldman	6.9	17
59	James Howard Kuntsler	6.9	16
60	Carl Hiaasen	6.9	16
61	Nathan Gunn	6.9	16
62	Hasan Elahi/George Johnson	6.9	16
63	Arianna Huffington	7.4	16
64	Dr. Mehmet Oz	7.3	17
65	Jennifer Hooper McCarty	6.9	16
66	Laura Dern/Grover Norquist	7.1	16
67	Andrei Cherny	7.0	17
68	Brian Greene	7.1	18
69	Claire McCaskill	7.3	18
70	David Sirota	7.4	18
71	Jon Paskowitz	7.1	16
72	George Will	6.9	16
73	Salman Rushdie	7.3	17
74	Pat Buchanan	6.9	17
75	Philip Weiss	7.0	17
76	Alan Rabinowitz	7.0	16
77	David Hajdu	7.0	17
78	Dickson Despommier	7.0	16
79	Kenneth Miller/R.E.M.	7.4	16
80	Jonathan Zittrain	7.0	16
81	Junot Diaz	7.6	19
82	Bishop N.T. Wright	6.9	17
83	Barbara Ehrenreich	7.2	17
84	Will Smith	7.9	35
85	Neil deGrasse Tyson	7.4	16
86	Robert Wexler	7.0	16
88	Jason Riley	7.0	17
89	Rush	8.1	21
90	Elizabeth Edwards	7.1	17
91	Jim Webb	7.2	16
92	Margaret Spellings	7.2	17
93	Nas	7.0	16
94	Garrett Reisman	7.0	16
95	Toby Keith	7.0	16
96	Eric Roston	7.0	16
97	Crosby, Stills & Nash	7.1	16
98	Buzz Aldrin	7.2	16
99	Lucas Conley/The Apples in Stereo	7.0	16
100	David Carr	7.0	16
101	Kevin Costner	6.9	17
102	Thomas Frank	7.1	17
103	Jorge Ramos	7.0	16
104	Jane Mayer	6.9	16
105	Dick Meyer	6.9	16
106	Bing West	6.6	16
107	Scott McClellan	7.1	16
108	Mike Huckabee	6.9	17
109	Richard Brookhiser	7.0	16
110	John McWhorter	7.1	16
112	Doris Kearns Goodwin	7.8	13
113	Ron Paul	7.3	16
114	David Paterson	7.3	16
115	Peter J. Gomes	7.3	13
116	Rick Reilly	7.3	13
117	Bob Lutz	7.3	13
118	Maria Bartiromo	7.2	13
119	Jackson Browne	7.7	13
120	Cornel West	7.7	13
121	Nicholas Carr	7.3	13
122	Paul Begala	7.2	13
123	James Taylor	7.2	16
125	Stephen Greenblatt/Naomi Klein	7.7	15
128	Joe Scarborough	7.1	15
129	Oliver Stone/David Gergen	6.8	13
132	Shai Agassi	7.3	14
133	Brent Glass/Robert Greenwald	7.2	13
134	Fareed Zakaria/Wynton Marsalis	5.7	19
135	Michael Farris	7.3	13
136	David Frum	7.2	13
139	Sherman Alexie	7.3	13
140	David Simon	7.2	13
144	Andrew Young	7.7	13
145	Rachel Maddow	7.2	18
146	Kevin Johnson	6.3	14
149	Tom Brokaw/Malcolm Gladwell	7.7	13
150	Paul Simon	7.7	13
151	Michael Lewis	7.3	13
152	Cory Booker/Thomas Friedman	7.4	16
155	Barbara Walters	7.8	13
156	Bob Graham/Nicholas Wade	6.8	18
157	Geoffrey Canada	7.4	17
158	Kevin Bacon/Charlie Kaufman	8.4	18
160	Michael Phelps	7.2	17

Season 5 (2009)

7.83 avg 70 episodes 7.8 → 7.6

Season 5 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	John King	7.8	17
2	Matt Miller	7.9	17
3	Benicio Del Toro	8.6	24
4	Lawrence Lessig	8.0	19
5	Anthony Romero	8.0	19
6	Niall Ferguson	7.8	17
7	Alan Khazei	7.9	18
8	Shepard Fairey	8.5	21
9	Frank Rich	8.0	17
10	Jabari Asim	8.0	18
11	Elizabeth Alexander	8.1	18
12	Jon Meacham	8.1	19
13	Ed Young	7.3	20
14	Philippe Petit	6.9	23
15	Paul McCartney/Denis Dutton	8.4	18
16	John Podesta	8.2	16
17	Dan Zaccagnino	8.0	18
18	Henry Louis Gates, Jr.	8.0	18
19	Steve Martin	8.6	22
20	Jonah Lehrer/James Surowiecki	8.5	19
21	TV on the Radio	8.0	15
24	Adam Gopnik	8.0	15
25	Helen Fisher/Father James Martin	7.0	16
26	Cliff Sloan	8.1	15
27	John Fetterman	7.9	15
28	Kris Kristofferson	7.6	16
32	Steven Johnson/Jim Cramer	7.6	15
34	Jay Keasling/William Gerstenmaier	8.0	12
35	Howard Fineman	7.9	15
37	Neil Gaiman/Jonathan Chait	8.2	15
47	Phil Bronstein	7.7	15
48	Bart Ehrman	7.6	16
49	Susie Orbach	7.4	16
50	Jim Lehrer	7.7	15
66	Episode #5.66	8.2	12
68	Meghan McCain	7.6	17
72	Byron Dorgan	8.0	12
75	Episode #5.75	8.1	15
76	Episode #5.76	8.2	16
77	Episode #5.77	8.4	15
78	Episode #5.78	8.5	17
83	Paul Muldoon	7.6	14
84	Episode #5.84	8.0	12
85	David Kilcullen/Howard Dean	7.7	14
86	Matthew Crawford	7.7	12
87	Jim Fouratt	7.7	12
88	Neil deGrasse Tyson/Jeff Goldblum	8.0	18
96	Bob Park	8.0	12
98	Chris Anderson	8.0	12
101	Arianna Huffington	7.5	18
113	Robert Wright	8.0	12
115	Chris Matthews	6.7	12
116	Cory Booker	7.5	18
117	Christiane Amanpour	7.5	17
118	The Flaming Lips	7.2	17
119	Frank Bruni	7.6	18
120	Shai Agassi	7.9	15
121	AJ Jacobs	6.5	19
122	Ken Burns	7.9	15
123	Sheryl WuDunn	7.6	15
134	Jerry Mitchell	7.6	15
142	William Bratton	7.6	14
144	Maria Shriver	7.7	12
145	Christopher Caldwell	7.4	15
146	Woody Harrelson	7.7	12
150	Elvis Costello	7.8	12
158	Lara Logan	8.0	13
159	Snoop Dogg	7.8	16
160	Alicia Keys	8.2	20
161	Tom Brokaw	7.6	19

Season 6 (2010)

7.67 avg 63 episodes 7.8 → 8.1 90 min avg

Rebound
Rollercoaster

Season 6 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
4	James Fowler	7.8	12
5	Morgan Freeman	7.1	13
6	Raj Patel	6.3	17
16	David Gergen	7.3	16
17	Harold Ford Jr.	7.8	12
19	John Durant	7.6	12
20	Henry Louis Gates, Jr.	7.3	17
22	George Stephanopoulos	7.6	12
23	Claire Danes	7.4	15
24	David Ross	7.2	15
25	Shaun White	7.4	15
26	Bob Costas	8.4	12
27	Ryan St. Onge/Jeret Peterson	8.4	12
28	Seth Wescott	7.8	13
29	Don Cheadle	7.2	15
34	Tom Hanks	6.7	16
36	David Aaronovitch	7.4	15
46	Al Sharpton	5.7	15
47	David Simon	7.8	12
49	Julian Assange	8.1	13
56	Episode #6.56	7.8	16
62	Episode #6.62	8.3	12
75	Alan Bean	8.0	12
76	Stephen Prothero	7.2	15
77	Carl Safina	7.8	12
78	Devo	8.0	12
79	David Mamet	8.0	12
82	Tim Westergren	8.0	15
83	Michael Specter	7.2	15
84	John Waters	8.2	20
85	Mayor Julian Castro	7.8	12
86	Nicholas Carr	7.5	12
87	Manny Howard	7.7	12
88	Dr. Michio Kaku	7.6	14
90	Steve Carell	8.6	16
102	Chuck Close	7.8	12
110	Richard Engel	8.2	12
113	Brent Cummings/Josh Bleill	7.2	12
117	Lawrence O'Donnell	8.1	16
120	Guillermo del Toro	7.5	14
134	Nicholas Negroponte	7.7	12
136	Apolo Ohno	7.6	12
137	Maira Kalman	7.8	12
139	Indecision 2010: Revenge of the Fallen	8.1	17
141	Elvis Costello	8.0	12
143	Cee Lo Green	7.0	12
145	Quincy Jones	7.8	12
146	David Stern	7.8	12
147	John Legend	7.8	12
148	Ian Frazier	7.6	15
149	Salvatore Giunta	7.8	12
150	Dan Savage	6.8	14
151	Tom Vilsack	7.8	15
152	Michelle Rhee	8.0	12
153	David Stockman	8.0	12
154	Garry Trudeau	7.8	17
155	Julie Nixon Eisenhower and David Eisenhower	7.4	17
156	Steve Martin	8.5	18
157	Julie Taymor	7.8	12
158	Patti Smith	8.0	14
159	Stephen Sondheim	7.4	15
160	Laird Hamilton	7.7	12
161	Amy Sedaris/Paul Simon	8.1	38

Season 7 (2011)

7.65 avg 116 episodes 7.6 → 8.3 60 min avg

Rebound
Rollercoaster

Season 7 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Edward Rendell	7.6	19
2	Geoffrey Canada	7.5	17
3	Atul Gawande	7.3	15
4	Ronald DePinho	7.3	17
5	Fen Montaigne	7.2	17
6	Chris Hughes	7.5	12
7	Bernard-Henri Levy	7.6	19
8	Kevin Spacey	7.8	17
9	Sherry Turkle	7.7	17
10	Cornel West	7.7	17
11	Ron Reagan	7.2	16
12	Chris Matthews	6.4	18
13	Charlie Rose	7.6	17
14	Amy Chua	7.9	15
15	Michael Waldman/Christine Yvette Lewis	7.6	15
16	Brian Greene	7.3	16
17	Dr. Paul Offit	7.8	12
18	Michael Lewis	7.2	17
19	Sean Kelly	7.8	12
20	Jane McGonigal	8.2	14
21	LCD Soundsystem	7.2	16
22	David Albright	8.2	12
23	Eric Foner	7.8	12
24	Jeffrey Leonard	7.8	16
25	Eugene Jarecki	7.0	13
27	Stephanie Coontz	8.2	12
28	Mike Huckabee	7.3	12
29	Michael Scheuer	7.7	12
31	Harry Connick, Jr.	7.7	12
32	Mark Moffett	8.1	16
33	Joshua Foer	7.4	16
34	Dan Sinker	7.7	15
35	David Brooks	7.7	15
36	Reza Aslan	7.4	17
37	Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers	7.8	17
38	Ayman Mohyeldin	8.0	12
39	Nathan Myhrvold	7.3	15
40	Jody Williams	7.7	12
41	Michael Moore	7.9	15
42	Dr. Anthony Fauci	8.2	12
43	Tim Shriver	7.2	16
44	Piers Gibbon	8.2	13
45	Andrew Chaikin	7.2	19
46	James Franco	8.0	20
47	David Tang	7.8	12
48	Jeff Greenfield	8.0	12
49	Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage	8.1	18
50	Ray Kurzweil	7.6	19
51	Morgan Spurlock	7.9	21
52	Caroline Kennedy	7.4	17
53	Ron Paul	7.8	18
54	A.C. Grayling	7.4	16
55	Ice-T	7.5	16
56	Wade Graham	7.4	12
57	Francis Fukuyama	8.1	15
58	Rex Ryan	7.2	16
59	Amy Farrell	7.6	15
60	Bill James	7.3	15
61	Lupe Fiasco	6.5	16
62	Geoffrey Rush	7.1	18
63	Eric Greitens	7.6	15
64	John Bradshaw	7.7	13
65	Alison Klayman	7.6	14
66	Amy Kremer	7.8	12
68	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	7.4	17
69	James Stewart	7.3	16
70	Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.	8.2	13
71	Salman Khan	6.4	18
72	Werner Herzog	7.3	17
73	Sugar Ray Leonard	7.8	12
74	Bre Pettis	8.2	12
75	Tom Ridge	7.2	15
78	Keith Olbermann	7.1	16
79	Bon Iver	7.7	16
80	Florence and the Machine	8.2	12
81	Talib Kweli	8.3	12
82	Jack White	7.1	18
83	Grover Norquist	7.1	15
84	Alexandra Pelosi	7.6	17
85	Gary Sinise	7.4	17
87	Michael Shermer	7.6	19
88	Dan Savage	7.6	18
89	David McCullough	7.7	13
90	Jose Antonio Vargas	8.3	14
91	John Pendergast	7.7	12
92	David Carr	7.5	18
93	Michael Sandel	8.1	15
94	David Eagleman	7.8	12
95	Brian Cox	7.0	17
96	Brooke Gladstone	6.8	21
97	Missy Cummings	7.0	16
98	Buddy Roemer	7.4	16
99	Tony Hsieh	8.0	13
100	Al Hunt	8.2	13
101	Robert Wittman	7.6	16
102	Anthony Bourdain	7.8	17
103	Nassir Ghaemi	7.9	15
104	The Cars	7.4	17
105	Elliot Ackerman	7.8	13
106	Gloria Steinem	8.0	13
107	Susan Rice	7.8	18
108	STS-135 astronauts	7.8	20
109	Jeff Bridges	8.0	19
110	Kevin Mitnick	8.1	16
111	Tim Pawlenty	7.7	13
114	Diane Sawyer	7.3	17
115	Al Gore	8.1	14
116	Michael Moore	7.9	17
117	David Copperfield	7.8	18
118	Jeffery Kluger	8.0	14
119	Daniel Yergin	8.0	14
120	Jeremy Ben-Ami	8.0	16
121	Dr. Pepper Presents Stephen Colbert's Rocktember with Radiohead	7.8	19
122	Melinda Gates	8.2	14
123	Ken Burns	8.3	14
124	Mark Cuban	8.3	16

Season 8 (2011)

7.83 avg 151 episodes 7.8 → 7.8 21 min avg

Mid-peak

Season 8 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Jerome Groopman	7.8	16
2	John Lithgow	8.1	17
3	Black Star	7.8	16
4	Jason Amerine	8.0	19
5	Harry Belafonte	8.1	17
6	Steven Pinker	7.9	16
7	Ali Soufan	7.7	21
8	Coldplay	7.6	17
9	Jon Huntsman	8.0	16
10	Susan Saladoff	8.1	17
11	Taylor Branch	8.3	15
12	Toby Keith	8.1	17
13	Neil MacGregor	8.5	22
14	Yo-Yo Ma	7.9	17
15	Michael Pollan	8.5	15
16	Nathan Wolfe	8.3	15
17	Niall Ferguson	7.8	18
18	Seth Meyers	7.7	22
19	James Martin	7.9	16
20	Brian Eno	7.4	17
21	Thomas Thwaites	7.5	16
22	Elijah Wood	7.8	19
23	Chris Matthews	7.5	21
24	Susan Orlean	7.6	21
25	Siddhartha Mukherjee	7.2	20
26	Tinariwen	7.8	18
27	Stephen Sondheim	8.3	18
28	Richard Branson	7.8	16
29	Jimmie Johnson	7.9	17
30	The Black Keys	7.5	19
31	David Hallberg	8.2	20
32	Jack Abramoff	8.1	19
33	Samuel L. Jackson	7.8	20
34	Mark Whitaker	8.0	18
35	Ray Odierno	7.7	17
36	Daniel Craig	7.7	23
37	Bernie Sanders	8.0	21
38	John Heilemann	7.6	19
39	Steve Case	7.6	19
40	Melissa Harris-Perry	7.7	18
41	Bill Moyers	7.7	20
42	George Stephanopoulos	7.6	20
43	Mike Allen	8.3	20
44	Scott Douglas	7.8	20
45	Jennifer Granholm	7.6	18
46	David Frum	7.7	20
47	Carrie Rebora Barratt	8.1	23
48	Bruce Bueno de Mesquita	7.4	20
49	Andrew Sullivan	7.6	21
50	Terry Gross	8.3	21
51	Drew Barrymore	7.6	21
52	Laurence Tribe	7.9	19
53	Björk	7.5	23
54	Ameena Matthews	7.8	21
55	Christiane Amanpour	7.8	18
56	Bill McKibben	7.7	20
57	William J. Broad	7.4	20
58	Ann Patchett	7.3	18
59	Robert Kagan	7.8	21
60	Nancy Pelosi	7.1	19
61	Placido Domingo	7.6	23
62	King Peggy	7.5	20
63	Ross Eisenbrey	7.7	20
64	William Shatner	7.9	24
65	Clare Danes	7.7	21
66	Audra McDonald	7.9	21
67	Jonathan Safran Foer	7.8	22
68	Willem Dafoe	7.9	20
69	Don Fleming, Elvis Costello, & Emmylou Harris	7.7	21
70	Katherine Boo	7.5	19
71	Andrew Bird	7.8	17
72	Mark McKinnon	7.6	20
73	Dexter Filkins	7.7	19
74	David Page	8.0	19
75	Charles Murray	7.8	20
76	Mark Ruffalo	8.0	19
77	Peter Beinart	7.8	16
78	Gary Johnson	8.1	17
79	Nikki Haley	7.8	16
80	Robert Ballard	8.4	16
81	Anne Rice	8.0	20
82	Bob Lutz	8.0	16
83	Richard Hersh	7.9	19
84	Michelle Obama	8.6	22
85	James Cameron	8.5	22
86	Episode #8.86	8.1	17
87	Jonah Lehrer	8.0	16
88	Arianna Huffington	8.4	19
89	Tavis Smiley & Cornel West	8.4	18
90	Don McLeroy	7.9	19
91	Magnus Carlsen	8.2	20
92	Michael Sandel	7.9	17
93	Jack White	7.8	18
94	Diane Keaton	8.0	16
96	Jonathan Haidt	7.1	18
97	Lena Dunham	7.6	20
98	Episode #8.98	8.1	18
99	Episode #8.99	7.9	20
101	Anna Wintour	8.0	19
102	Charlize Theron	7.8	20
103	Alan Alda	7.7	19
104	Jack Hitt	7.8	17
105	John Lewis	7.8	18
106	Jill Biden	7.7	19
107	Neil Patrick Harris	7.9	16
108	Regina Spektor	8.0	17
109	Martin Sheen	8.1	18
111	Gregg Allman	7.9	16
112	Steve Coll	8.0	13
113	Paul Krugman	7.8	18
114	Olivia Wilde	7.8	19
115	Daniel Klaidman	7.7	18
116	Lawrence Krauss	7.8	21
117	Frank Deford	7.7	17
118	Richard Ford	7.8	16
119	Melinda Gates	7.6	17
120	Aaron Sorkin	7.9	17
121	Anne-Marie Slaughter	7.9	13
122	Nas	7.7	17
123	Annise Parker	8.0	13
124	Lisa Jackson	7.7	16
125	Vikram Gandhi	8.0	20
126	James Fallows	7.8	17
127	Dan Gross	8.0	18
128	Peter Westmacott	8.0	17
129	Episode #8.129	7.7	17
130	Jeff Koons	7.9	19
131	John Grunsfeld	7.9	18
132	Chris Hayes	7.9	19
133	Pete Seeger	8.6	13
135	Liza Mundy	8.0	16
136	Woody Harrelson	7.6	17
137	Fun	7.2	17
138	StePhest Colbchella '012 - Grizzly Bear	7.3	17
139	StePhest Colbchella '012 - Santigold	7.3	18
140	StePhest Colbchella '012 - The Flaming Lips	7.4	17
141	Andrew Sullivan	7.6	18
142	Jennifer Burns	8.2	13
143	Jon Huntsman	7.9	18
144	James Carville	7.6	17
145	Reihan Salam	7.3	18
147	Bill Richardson	7.8	17
148	Ed Rendell	7.7	18
149	Drew Faust	7.8	18
150	Jeffrey Toobin	7.8	17
151	Itzhak Perlman	7.4	20
152	Errol Morris	8.3	14
153	Claressa Shields	8.2	13
155	Vince Gilligan	7.3	17
178	Episode #8.178	8.2	13
188	Jorge Ramos	7.8	16

Season 9 (2012)

7.03 avg 148 episodes 6.8 → 6.8 22 min avg

Season 9 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Ben Folds Five	6.8	18
2	Jorge Ramos	6.9	14
3	Kenny Rogers	7.0	20
4	George Church	7.0	17
6	Morrissey	6.5	20
7	Naomi Wolf	6.9	17
8	Chrystia Freeland	7.0	18
9	Evan Thomas	6.9	17
10	Cory Booker	6.9	18
11	Tyler Perry	5.6	22
12	The Killers	6.2	19
13	Donald Sadoway	6.6	18
14	John Grisham	7.1	18
15	Anthony Everitt	6.8	16
16	Mitch Daniels	6.8	21
17	Lilly Ledbetter	7.3	19
18	Episode #9.18	6.8	18
19	Nate Silver	7.2	20
20	David Byrne & St. Vincent	6.9	20
21	Doris Kearns Goodwin	7.2	23
22	Rachel Maddow	6.4	24
23	Ken Burns	7.2	22
24	Newt Gingrich	6.7	20
25	Tony Kushner	7.2	22
26	Chris Stringer	7.1	20
27	Jake Tapper	7.1	20
28	Dolly Parton	7.0	21
29	Frank Oz	7.2	20
30	Sean Carroll	6.6	17
31	Ian McKellen	7.9	27
32	Martin Freeman	7.9	26
33	Andy Serkis	7.6	22
34	Peter Jackson	7.5	25
35	Diana Krall	6.5	18
36	Malcolm Gladwell	6.5	17
37	Mandy Patinkin	7.2	17
38	Simone Campbell	8.0	26
39	Jimmy Wales	7.1	20
40	Chris Kluwe	6.8	19
41	Neil Shubin	6.4	18
42	Benjamin Gibbard	6.7	19
43	Piers Morgan	6.9	20
44	Jared Diamond	7.0	20
45	Tom Brokaw	6.7	21
46	Akhil Reed Amar	7.4	17
47	Ta-Nehisi Coates	6.8	21
48	Kathryn Bigelow	6.2	23
49	Sally Field	6.7	20
50	Tavi Gevinson	7.1	24
51	Michael Shellenberger	6.6	20
52	George Saunders	6.8	23
53	Bill Gates	6.8	22
55	Sonia Sotomayor	7.1	23
56	Julie Andrews	7.2	23
57	Lawrence Wright	6.7	21
58	Benh Zeitlin	6.7	20
59	Garry Wills	7.2	19
60	Roger Hodge	6.9	22
61	Dave Grohl	7.2	23
62	Gavin Newsom	6.9	21
63	Emily Bazelon	7.0	22
64	David Goldhill	6.8	21
65	Lil Buck	6.8	22
66	Simon Garfield	6.7	21
67	Michio Kaku	7.0	23
68	Paola Antonelli	6.6	21
69	Jon Favreau	6.6	19
71	James Franco	7.1	22
72	Brendan O'Connell	6.6	22
73	John Sexton	6.6	23
74	Junot Diaz	6.9	20
75	Eric Topol	7.0	20
77	Robert Lustig	7.0	21
78	Sigourney Weaver	7.1	21
79	Jim McGreevey	7.1	19
80	A.C. Grayling	7.0	21
81	Francis Collins	6.9	20
82	Bill Clinton	7.6	25
83	Charlie LeDuff	6.9	19
84	Carl Edgar BlakeII	6.4	20
85	Cass Sunstein	6.9	20
86	Caroline Kennedy	6.9	24
87	Alan Cumming	6.4	26
88	Richard Engel	5.9	22
89	Michael Pollan	7.0	19
90	Eric Schmidt	7.3	18
91	Danica Patrick	6.9	19
92	Shane Smith	7.1	20
93	Gene Robinson	7.2	18
94	Iggy and the Stooges	6.7	19
95	Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	7.4	19
96	Ben Kingsley	7.4	19
97	Robert Caro	7.2	19
98	Douglas Rushkoff	7.4	18
99	Richard Besser	7.3	19
100	Colbert's Book Club: 'The Great Gatsby'	7.3	26
101	Jessica Buchanan & Erik Landemalm	7.0	15
102	Dan Brown	7.2	21
103	Cyndi Lauper	7.3	18
105	David Sassoon	7.3	19
106	Noah Feldman	7.2	21
107	The National	6.6	15
108	C.J. Chivers	7.1	18
109	John Dingell	7.2	19
110	Alex Gibney	7.3	13
111	Jonathan Alter	7.1	13
112	John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T Bone Burnett	6.2	13
113	Dan Savage	7.3	20
114	Daniel Bergner	7.2	16
115	Paul McCartney	7.7	20
116	The Postal Service	7.7	20
117	Joss Whedon	7.8	20
118	Better Know a District	7.4	18
119	Peniel Joseph	7.2	15
120	Bill Moyers	7.4	15
121	Chuck Schumer	7.4	19
122	Jeremy Scahill	7.7	17
123	David Karp	7.2	17
124	Jerry Seinfeld	7.6	68
125	Jeff Bridges	7.4	15
126	Kjerstin Gruys	7.6	16
128	Anant Agarwal	7.2	15
129	Olympia Snowe	7.0	18
130	The Lumineers	7.0	16
131	Atul Gawande	7.2	16
133	Bryan Cranston	7.4	18
134	Hugh Laurie	7.4	17
135	StePhest Colbchella '013: Robin Thicke	8.5	65
136	Ashton Kutcher	6.9	16
137	Colum McCann	6.9	16
138	Sheldon Whitehouse	7.2	16
139	John Lewis	7.4	16
140	Kevin Spacey	7.4	23
141	Richard Brodhead	7.2	16
142	Timothy Dolan	6.4	12
143	Gary England	7.1	13
144	John Prine	7.0	14
145	Billie Jean King	7.2	15
146	Colbert's Book Club: Everything But 'The Catcher in the Rye' by JD Salinger	7.0	16
147	Sheryl Crow	6.9	15
148	Philip Mudd	7.2	15
150	Arne Duncan	6.2	13
151	Nicholson Baker	7.6	24
153	Metallica	7.5	15
154	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	6.8	13
155	Chris Fischer	6.9	17
161	Jack Johnson	7.0	16
170	Episode #9.170	6.8	14

Season 10 (2013)

7.10 avg 99 episodes 8.2 → 6.2 22 min avg

Rollercoaster

Season 10 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Vince Gilligan	8.2	29
2	Daniel Radcliffe	7.5	23
3	Chris Matthews	7.0	18
4	David Finkel	7.3	19
5	James Spithill	7.2	17
6	Paul Giamatti	7.1	17
7	Tom Hanks	6.9	20
8	Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell	7.2	14
9	Arcade Fire	7.0	25
10	A. Scott Berg	7.3	23
11	Judy Woodruff & Gwen Ifill	7.4	24
12	Stephen Fry	8.0	56
13	Orlando Bloom	7.3	24
18	Episode #10.18	7.2	22
19	Brian Lehrer	7.2	22
20	Episode #10.20	7.2	22
21	Episode #10.21	7.2	21
22	Julius Erving	7.4	22
23	The Blind Boys of Alabama	6.9	19
24	Alexis Ohanian	7.2	21
25	Steve McQueen	7.7	22
26	Rick Santorum	6.8	21
27	M.I.A.	7.4	21
28	Peter Baker	7.5	20
29	Episode #10.29	7.1	18
30	Mark Mazzetti	7.0	18
33	David Keith	7.0	15
37	Jonah Peretti	7.1	16
38	Garry Trudeau	6.4	17
39	Keanu Reeves	7.7	27
40	Ben Stiller	7.5	24
43	John Seigenthaler	6.9	18
45	David Fanning	7.0	17
46	Deborah Solomon	6.6	19
47	Daniel Goleman	7.3	15
48	Naquasia LeGrand	6.8	16
49	Bryan Stevenson	7.3	15
50	Colbert's Book Club: "A Farewell to Arms"	7.1	19
53	Nate Silver	6.5	17
55	Episode #10.55	7.1	15
56	Drew Brees	6.8	17
58	Pussy Riot	7.6	22
59	Lake Street Dive	7.8	21
60	Paul Krugman	6.6	19
61	Patrick Kennedy	7.3	21
62	Charlie Crist	7.0	19
63	Alan Mulally	7.0	17
64	Brian Greene	7.3	17
65	Alexander Payne	7.6	19
66	Stanley McChrystal	7.4	18
68	St. Vincent	7.1	19
70	Jeff Goldblum	7.3	16
71	Caitlin Flanagan	5.7	18
73	Beau Willimon	7.1	15
74	Jaron Lanier	6.0	13
75	Neil DeGrasse Tyson	7.4	17
76	Episode #10.76	7.1	16
77	Maria Shriver	6.8	15
78	Ronan Farrow	6.4	12
83	Biz Stone	6.8	21
84	Episode #10.84	6.8	14
88	Jimmy Carter	7.2	17
89	Episode #10.89	7.2	17
90	Sting	5.7	14
91	Edward Frenkel	7.7	17
93	Episode #10.93	6.8	17
98	Darren Aronofsky	7.8	21
99	Ken Burns	7.6	19
105	Keri Russell	7.1	15
107	Edward O. Wilson	7.2	16
108	Episode #10.108	6.9	17
111	Episode #10.111	7.4	17
112	Sting	7.1	17
113	Episode #10.113	7.2	15
115	Elizabeth Warren	7.6	20
118	Episode #10.118	7.7	23
123	Episode #10.123	6.9	17
127	Episode #10.127	6.6	18
128	Matt Weiner	7.0	17
131	Episode #10.131	6.9	16
133	Saul Williams	7.0	18
135	Episode #10.135	6.9	18
138	Morgan Freeman	7.7	19
140	Episode #10.140	7.3	17
143	Episode #10.143	7.3	15
147	Thomas Friedman	6.9	17
148	Episode #10.148	6.8	13
153	Episode #10.153	6.9	14
154	Episode #10.154	6.9	18
168	Chrissie Hynde	6.6	13
175	James Webb	7.0	18
182	Episode #10.182	7.0	15
189	Episode #10.189	8.0	17
210	Steven Wise	7.4	17
217	Episode #10.217	7.2	16
224	Episode #10.224	7.1	14
231	Episode #10.231	6.2	13
252	JR	6.9	15
266	Episode #10.266	6.2	12

The Colbert Report (2005)

Seasons