The Daily Show Becomes Most Watched Late Night Show For Adults 18-49

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" has accomplished what no other late night talk show has been able to do since the turn of the millennium, finishing a full quarter as the most-viewed show among Adults 18-49, breaking a victory streak of at least 40 consecutive quarters by "The Tonight Show." (source: Nielsen Media Research, most current data, original episodes only, 3/28/11-6/26/11)

In addition to this historic achievement, the Emmy(R) and Peabody(R) Award-winning "The Daily Show," along with the similarly-lauded "The Colbert Report," finished the second quarter as the most-viewed late night talk shows in all of television, both broadcast and cable, among Adults 18-34, Adults 18-24, Men 18-34 and Men 18-24. The two COMEDY CENTRAL series also topped all cable late night talk shows among total viewers with "Colbert" wrapping up the quarter just behind "Daily Show" among Adults 18-49 in cable.

For the second quarter of 2011, "The Daily Show" averaged 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.2 A18-49 rating (1.3 million A18-49 viewers). Versus 2Q 2010, "The Daily Show" grew +9% in total viewers, with ratings growth across all key demos including A18-49 (up +7%), A18-34 (+4%), A18-24 (+7%), M18-34 (+5%) and M18-24 (+11%).

"The Daily Show's" 1.295 million Adult 18-49 viewers led all late night talk shows in the demo for the quarter, the first time a show other than "The Tonight Show" has topped this key demographic for a full quarter since at least 1Q 2000 (COMEDY CENTRAL research data goes back only as far as 1Q 2000).

"The Colbert Report" also had a memorable second quarter, finishing with an average audience of 1.5 million total viewers (up +6% vs. 2Q 2010) and a 0.9 A18-49 rating (up +5%), which translated to 960,000 A18-49 viewers. Like its lead-in, "The Colbert Report" dominated among young men, finishing the quarter behind only "The Daily Show" in all of late night, broadcast and cable, among A18-34 (up +1%), A18-24 (up +2%), M18-34 (up +6%) and M18-24 (up +5%), providing COMEDY CENTRAL with the top two spots across all of television in these key demos.

"Conan" took the third spot across cable late night talk shows in most key demos for the quarter, but the Turner talker was overtaken by E!'s "Chelsea Lately" in June, with "Chelsea" beating the slumping "Conan" for third place in cable among total viewers, A18-49 and A18-34 across a month that saw "Conan" continue its downward slide to finish below a million total viewers for the first time since its November 2010 premiere. For June, "Chelsea Lately" averaged 959,000 total viewers (-6% vs. May 2011), with a 0.6 A18-49 rating (-7%) and a 0.7 A18-34 rating (-10%). "Conan," in dropping to fourth place overall in cable, averaged just 851,000 total viewers (down -19% vs. May 2011), with a 0.5 A18-49 rating (down -24%) and a 0.7 A18-34 rating (down -25%). (Source: Nielsen Media Research, most current data, original episodes only, 5/30/11-6/26/11)

"The Daily Show" airs Monday-Thursday at 11:00 p.m. and repeats at 1:30 a.m. the same night and at 9:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. the following day (all times ET/PT). Full episodes, as well as clips, are posted for viewing the following day at www.thedailyshow.com with URL and embed links. Fans can follow @TheDailyShow on Twitter or "like" The Daily Show on Facebook.

Jon Stewart and Rory Albanese are the executive producers of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" with Steve Bodow, Kahane Cooperman, Jennifer Flanz and Jim Margolis serving as co-executive producers. Supervising producers are Pam DePace, Hillary Kun and Adam Lowitt. Jill Katz is the executive in charge of production. The series' head writer is Tim Carvell and it is directed by Chuck O'Neil.

"The Colbert Report" airs Monday-Thursday at 11:30 p.m. and repeats at 2:00 a.m. the same night and at 10:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. the following day (all times ET/PT). Full episodes, as well as clips, are posted for viewing the following day at www.colbertnation.com with URL and embed links. Fans can follow Colbert's Twitter feed @StephenAtHome and "like" The Colbert Report on Facebook.

"The Colbert Report" is produced by Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, Inc. in association with Colbert's Spartina Productions, Inc. Stewart, Colbert and Tom Purcell are the executive producers with MerEdith Bennett and Richard Dahm as co-executive producers. Jim Hoskinson is the director.

CABLE LATE NIGHT

2Q 2011 QUARTERLY AVERAGES

TOTAL VIEWERS
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 2,246,000
"The Colbert Report" 1,546,000
"Conan" 1,039,000
"Chelsea Lately" 997,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 539,000
"Lopez Tonight" 524,000

PERSONS 18-49 Rating Delivery
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1.2 1,295,000
"The Colbert Report" 0.9 960,000
"Conan" 0.7 748,000
"Chelsea Lately" 0.7 720,000
"Lopez Tonight" 0.3 340,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 0.3 271,000

PERSONS 18-34 Rating Delivery
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1.3 723,000
"The Colbert Report" 1.0 584,000
"Conan" 0.9 504,000
"Chelsea Lately" 0.8 426,000
"Lopez Tonight" 0.4 205,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 0.3 158,000

PERSONS 18-24 Rating Delivery
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1.1 269,000
"The Colbert Report" 1.0 237,000
"Conan" 0.8 192,000
"Chelsea Lately" 0.6 153,000
"Lopez Tonight" 0.4 94,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 0.3 63,000

MEN 18-34 Rating Delivery
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1.7 485,000
"The Colbert Report" 1.4 407,000
"Conan" 1.0 293,000
"Lopez Tonight" 0.4 120,000
"Chelsea Lately" 0.4 108,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 0.2 56,000

MEN 18-24 Rating Delivery
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1.6 197,000
"The Colbert Report" 1.5 177,000
"Conan" 0.9 109,000
"Lopez Tonight" 0.5 55,000
"Chelsea Lately" 0.2 22,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 0.2 18,000

Source: Nielsen Media Research, most current data, 3/28/11-6/26/11, original episodes only

BROADCAST AND CABLE LATE NIGHT 2Q QUARTERLY AVERAGES

PERSONS 18-49
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 1,295,000
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" 1,292,000
"The Late Show with David Letterman" 1,096,000
"The Colbert Report" 960,000
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" 842,000
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" 766,000
"Conan" 748,000
"Chelsea Lately" 720,000
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" 702,000
"Lopez Tonight" 340,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 271,000

PERSONS 18-34
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 723,000
"The Colbert Report" 584,000
"Conan" 504,000
"Chelsea Lately" 426,000
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" 418,000
"The Late Show with David Letterman" 341,000
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" 326,000
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" 275,000
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" 256,000
"Lopez Tonight" 205,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 158,000

PERSONS 18-24 "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 269,000
"The Colbert Report" 237,000
"Conan" 192,000
"Chelsea Lately" 153,000
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" 116,000
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" 110,000
"Lopez Tonight" 94,000
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" 85,000
"The Late Show with David Letterman" 63,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 63,000
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" 49,000

MEN 18-34
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 485,000
"The Colbert Report" 407,000
"Conan" 293,000
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" 182,000
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" 159,000
"The Late Show with David Letterman" 156,000
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" 126,000
"Lopez Tonight" 120,000
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" 116,000
"Chelsea Lately" 108,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 56,000

MEN 18-24
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" 197,000
"The Colbert Report" 177,000
"Conan" 109,000
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" 63,000
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" 56,000
"Lopez Tonight" 55,000
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" 33,000
"The Late Show with David Letterman" 27,000
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" 23,000
"Chelsea Lately" 22,000
"The Mo'Nique Show" 18,000

 

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