With election returns coverage pre-empting the network late night shows, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show team had Election Night all to themselves, and they appear to have reaped the ratings benefits.
Although the show’s hour-long live special proved to be a grim affair, it ended up drawing the show’s third highest audience of the year. That’s thanks in no small part to the fact that the Comedy Central show was simulcast across eight other Paramount-owned cable networks (MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop and Logo).
All told, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data, the special delivered 939,000 total viewers across all nine channels. That was enough to make it the show’s third highest rated episode this year, behind only Stewart’s return in February (which was also simulcast across multiple Paramount-owned channels), and his live post-debate special in September.
Numbers were similarly strong among people aged 18-49, where 243,000 viewers tuned in across all nine channels. That’s more than double the show’s year-to-date average in the advertiser-friendly demo.
Note that all of the numbers above are same-day-plus-live measurements. Viewership will increase for all measured shows once delayed-viewing Nielsen data arrives in the coming days.
Tuesday’s Daily Show made an even bigger impression online, where to date clips from the episode have clocked in at 8 million views on YouTube alone.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, and Michigan Lt Governor Garlin Gilchrist II were Stewart’s guests Tuesday night. The show’s lead guest was scheduled to be Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, but in a forboding sign of what was to come, he apparently canceled during the commercial break right after Stewart teased he’d be next on the air.
