Jon Stewart's return to host 'The Daily Show' has been met with enthusiastic viewership, as evidenced by the impressive numbers from Monday night's episode. Drawing in 1.3 million viewers on Comedy Central, this marks the highest viewership the show has seen on its home network since Stewart's departure in 2015.
Following Stewart's departure, Trevor Noah took over as host until his own exit in 2022. While some post-2015 episodes of 'The Daily Show' have surpassed 1.3 million viewers, it's worth noting that those numbers often included simulcasts on other Paramount-owned networks, which Monday's episode did not have the advantage of.
Stewart's initial return on Feb. 12 garnered a total of 1.9 million viewers across multiple networks, with only 930,000 viewers tuning in on Comedy Central. In comparison, his second episode saw a 35% increase in viewership on Comedy Central alone.
Furthermore, the ratings for the episode showed a significant uptick among young adults aged 18-34, jumping from 0.13 to 0.22. These figures, sourced from Nielsen's Live + Same Day data, do not even account for streaming numbers, where 'The Daily Show' continues to perform strongly.
Paramount Global's first-party data on Paramount+ streaming revealed that Stewart's return episode saw a total viewership increase from 1.9 million to over 3 million after three days of multiplatform viewing. It is anticipated that his second episode will experience similar growth in streaming numbers.
