According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data for the week of May 20, 2024, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show averaged 480,000 total viewers with 104,000 P18-49. Relative to the most recent week of new episodes (May 13-16, 2024), The Daily Show shed -1% in total viewers, and -14% in P18-49 viewers.
Jon Stewart’s Monday, May 20 episode, his 13th since returning to The Daily Show as weekly host, averaged 697,000 total viewers (his largest audience since April 15), with 152,000 P18-49 live-plus-same-day viewers at 11 p.m. That’s up +1% in total viewers but -11% in P18-49 viewers from Stewart’s most recent episode (Monday, May 13). It’s also -16% in total viewers and -12% in P18-49 viewers relative to his Monday live-plus-same-day averages in 2024.
The Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta hosted the program’s Tuesday, May 21 through Thursday, May 23, 2024 installments. Bit by an annual pre-Memorial Day Weekend TV viewing decline, Kosta’s three episodes averaged just 408,000 total viewers with 88,000 P18-49 live-plus-same-day viewers. That’s -3% in total viewers and -15% in P18-49 viewers relative to the week before (when Desi Lydic hosted TDS‘ Tuesday-Thursday shows), and +1%, but -26%, respectively, from the last time Kosta solo-hosted The Daily Show (week of April 9, 2024).
A lot of Daily Show viewing is done more than 24 hours after the episode’s initial airing, and the aforementioned averages should grow exponentially once delayed viewing data becomes available.
Prior to the writers’ strike in May 2023, rotating Daily Show guest hosts averaged just 369,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers per show; when The Daily Show resumed in mid-October after writers’ strike concluded, that average fell to roughly 300,000 viewers.
