Who Made Huckabee?

Colbert (top left), O'Brien (top right), and Stewart (bottom left) had an ongoing comical feud over who was responsible for Huckabee's (bottom right) surge in polls.

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Who Made Huckabee?, also known as the Colbert/O'Brien/Stewart feud, refers to a mock rivalry that occurred among late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart in early 2008, reportedly over who was responsible for then–presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's success in the presidential primaries.^[1]

In reality, however, the feud was concocted by the three comedians as a result of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.^[2] Without writers to fuel their banter, the three comedians staged a crossover/rivalry in order to fill airtime and garner more viewers during the ratings slump.^[3] Colbert made the claim that because of "the Colbert bump" in popularity which results from guest appearances on his show,^[4] he was responsible for recurring guest Huckabee's success in the 2008 Iowa caucus. O'Brien claimed he was responsible for cable personality Colbert's success because he mentioned Colbert on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a broadcast network show, and by extension was behind the success of Huckabee. In response, Stewart claimed he was responsible for O'Brien's original success, since Stewart featured him on The Jon Stewart Show in the early 1990s.

As the feud escalated, O'Brien, Colbert and Stewart each put forward increasingly farcical reasons he was responsible for Huckabee's success, insulting their rivals in the process. This resulted in a three-part comedic battle between the three faux-pundits, with all three appearing on each other's shows on the same night. The feud ended on Late Night with Conan O'Brien with a tongue-in-cheek "all-out brawl" between the three talk-show hosts.^[3]

Reaction to the "feud" by both the public and the media was mostly positive. TV Squad's Annie Wu wrote: "With the three hosts appearing on each other's shows all on one night, it was special appearances galore. It became a clash of the Titans, a battle of epic proportions, a heaping helping of Monday fanservice."^[5] Even so, the three comedians "shared a certain comedic sensibility",^[3] and admitted that they had a good time while helping each other out. O'Brien said: "It certainly helped that all three of us [were] in a period of our careers where we're looking for content."^[2]