Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for yesterday’s Jon Stewart-hosted Daily Show episode are in, and they show total viewer growth from the previous Monday.
With a focus on the threat of authoritarianism, the March 11, 2024 edition of The Daily Show averaged 970,000 total viewers and 176,000 P18-49 viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data. That’s an improvement of +6% in total viewers, but a -15% decline in demo viewers relative to the show’s Monday, March 4 live-plus-same-day averages. Yesterday’s is Stewart’s most-watched show since the Monday, Feb. 19 installment, but it also happens to be Stewart’s lowest-rated show in the P18-49 demo since making his return on Feb. 12, 2024.
It should be noted that these numbers are far from final. For context, Stewart’s March 4 Daily Show episode averaged 918,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers, and improved to 1,859,000 total viewers after live-plus-three-day data arrived. That’s more than a +100% bump in total viewers. It’s fair to assume the March 11 episode will see similar growth when delayed-viewing data arrives later in the week.
Prior to the writers’ strike in May, rotating guest hosts for The Daily Show averaged 369,000 total viewers per show; when The Daily Show resumed in mid-October after writers’ strike concluded, that number fell to roughly 300,000 viewers on average.
Harvard professor Steven Levitsky was Stewart’s March 11 episode guest. Levitsky is the coauthor (with Daniel Ziblatt) of the New York Times bestselling book, Tyranny of the Minority: How to Reverse an Authoritarian Turn and Forge a Democracy for All.
