Last night’s Jon Stewart-led Daily Show delivered mixed results in the Nielsen ratings department: A week-to-week decline in total viewers, but substantial growth in the P18-49 demo.
Per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, The Daily Show’s Monday, April 22 episode averaged 686,000 total viewers and 158,000 P18-49 viewers at 11 p.m. ET. That’s -8% in total viewers, but a solid +42% in P18-49 from Stewart’s previous Monday episode (April 15). The 158,000 P18-49 average represents Stewart’s largest audience in the measurement since his April 1 episode.
Salman Rushie was Stewart’s guest last night, and the duo discussed Rushdie’s new memoir, “Knife.”
Last night’s total viewer and P18-49 averages are far from final. For reference, the previous Monday Daily Show averaged 742,000 total viewers and 111,000 P18-49 viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data. Those figures ballooned to 1,577,000 total and 262,000 P18-49 after live-plus-three data arrived. That’s more than an +100% improvement in both measurements. One should expect a similar ratings bump when live-plus-three-data for April 22, 2024 cable programming arrives at the end of the week.
As one might expect, The Daily Show attracts a larger audience on Jon Stewart Mondays than on non-Stewart nights. However, his return to Comedy Central has had a halo effect on the show’s Tuesday through Thursday broadcasts, with rotating guest-hosts (correspondents and contributors) averaging upwards of 400,000 live-plus-same-day viewers per episode. For comparison, prior to the writers’ strike in May 2023, Daily Show rotating guest hosts averaged 369,000 live-plus-same-day viewers per show; when The Daily Show resumed in mid-October after the strike concluded, that number fell to roughly 300,000 live-plus-same-day viewers on average.
Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng will co-host The Daily Show tonight through Thursday.
