Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for this week’s episode of The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart are in, and they show improvement from his previous Monday episode (Feb. 26, 2024).
The Daily Show’s March 4, 2024 episode, focusing on the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, drew an average of 918,000 total viewers and 208,000 P18-49 viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day. That’s a +4% gain in total viewers, and a +10% gain in P18-49 demo viewers relative to Monday before.
While last night’s Daily Show ratings are up from the previous Monday, they’re down from Stewart’s first two Mondays back in the anchor chair. His fourth Daily Show Monday broadcast is -27% in total viewers and -7% in P18-49 viewers relative to his second Monday episode (Feb. 19, 2024). Week 4 of Stewart is -1% in total viewers and -11% in P18-49 viewers relative to his Daily Show return episode on Feb. 12, 2024.
It should be noted that these numbers are far from final. For context, Stewart’s Feb. 26 Daily Show episode averaged 885,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers, and improved to 1,966,000 total viewers after live-plus-three-day data arrived. That’s more than an +100% bump in total viewers. It’s fair to assume the March 4 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.
The New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer was Stewart’s March 4 guest, and he has a new book Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, which explores the roots of the current border crisis.
