Jon Stewart’s return to “The Daily Show” keeps breaking records. Over 3 million viewers tuned into watch the late night host’s return on Feb. 12, according to Nielsen ratings data that accounted for live plus three day viewing.
This new number — 3.06 million — reflects simulcasts and encores of “The Daily Show” episode. It also reflects a jump from the previously reported same day ratings of 1.85 million total viewers.
Altogether, Stewart’s return to Comedy Central ranked No. 1 across all of cable during the 11 p.m. ET/PT time slot. It also scored triple digit growth over Trevor Noah’s final show, specifically rising by 116% with 374,000 viewers when accounting for people aged 18 to 49 and rising by 129% with 498,000 viewers when accounting for people aged 25 to 54.
Total viewers compared to Noah’s final episode also saw a substantial uptick of 129% with 1.65 million people. That marked the biggest premiere audience for “The Daily Show” since seven years ago in 2017.
The performance of “The Daily Show” was also remarkable compared to its competition. Last Monday, the Comedy Central series ranked as the No. 1 news program on cable during the extended primetime window from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. and was No. 1 when it came to audiences 18 to 49 as well as audiences 25 to 54. The comedy program beat competitors such as the shows hosted by Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld on Fox News; Jen Psaki, Rachel Maddow and Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC; and Anderson Cooper, Kaitlan Collins and Laura Coates on CNN.
This success also translated to streaming. Stewart’s first episode back was the most watched “Daily Show” telecast ever in the history of the streaming service based on active subscribers. It also marked the most streamed week for “The Daily Show” in the history of Paramount+. The statistic was taken based on active subscribers and hours viewed.
Last Monday marked Stewart’s return to hosting the long-running comedy news program nearly nine years after his initial departure. Stewart originally hosted “The Daily Show” from 1999 until 2015 before Noah took over the desk. Moving forward, Stewart will host the series on Mondays throughout the 2024 election year. The rest of the week will be hosted by a rotating list of “Daily Show” correspondents and special talent such as Jordan Klepper, who returned to the series last week. Stewart will continue to EP “The Daily Show” through 2025.
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