Liberal viewers have a new mantra: TGIM!
Monday nights have suddenly exploded in Nielsen ratings (and national relevance) thanks to a rare confluence: two TV superstars from the political left who have They limited their regularly scheduled broadcasts to that night.
Jon Stewart, the “Daily Show” host and guide to Bush- and Obama-era Democrats who made a surprise return in February, now hosts his old show Mondays at 11 p.m. Rachel Maddow, who left her late-night duties at MSNBC in 2022, maintained a dedicated hour every Monday at 9.
In a depleted media age, his weekly shows have become something akin to a date night. Maddow’s Monday show is by far the highest-rated hour of the entire week on MSNBC. Mr. Stewart’s “Daily Show” significantly outperforms the show’s other weekday editions and has proven to be a rare big hit for Comedy Central.
For Democrats worried about a close election, Maddow and Stewart represent a particular kind of comfort: seasoned partisan warriors who have guided viewers through past upheavals in the political arena.
“‘Tell me everything’s going to be okay’ is the common refrain,” said Martin Kaplan, who directs the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, adding that Stewart’s monologues are now the first things he hears from his friends. . on Tuesday mornings. “It’s, ‘Did you see? You listened? You looked?'”
Their success Monday is a sign of the staying power of TV personalities who established themselves among viewers years before the news landscape split into hundreds of smaller outlets.
For decades, the conventional wisdom for talk shows was that a dedicated host had to appear five days a week to gain an audience, because viewers needed to get used to it. But in this new era of irregularly scheduled podcasts and on-demand streaming entertainment, viewers seem to be well into the mix from time to time.
Monday nights also include a promising star among anti-Trump viewers: Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former press secretary, whose MSNBC show appears once a week in prime time, Mondays at 8 p.m. which began in October, Ms. Psaki has increased viewership by 9 percent in her time slot.
While the hosts agree on many issues (none, for example, believe Trump is qualified to return to the presidency), their opinions represent a spectrum of views on the political left. In particular, Stewart has broken Democratic orthodoxy by mocking Biden over her advanced age, noting that many voters harbor qualms about his physical and cognitive fitness.
Stewart’s debut monologue in February included a desperate plea to White House aides who insisted on his boss’s mental acuity: “They should film that! It would be nice to show it to people! – and an on-screen headline that referred to the 2024 election as “Antiques Roadshow.”
Mary Trump, Trump’s niece and relentless critic, criticized Stewart’s jokes as “‘both sides are equal’ rhetoric” and “a potential disaster for democracy.”
But judging by the Monday afternoon crowds lining up outside the “Daily Show” studio on Manhattan’s Far West Side, Stewart’s iconoclasm has not diluted the enthusiasm of his fan base.
Tom Loker, 46, traveled two hours from Pennsylvania with his wife to attend a recent taping. Although they had fallen out of the habit of watching “The Daily Show” regularly, Mr. Stewart lured them back.
“We recorded them all, but I record it because I want to have the Monday show,” Loker said while waiting in line.
In a recording last month, Alexis Miller, a 41-year-old urban planner from Winnipeg, Canada, praised Stewart as a “cultural force.”
“He makes equal opportunity jokes and doesn’t hit,” she said.
Demand for tickets to attend Stewart’s Monday tapings is significantly higher than other days of the week, according to two people who requested anonymity to share details of internal discussions.
And the show’s ratings underscore that level of enthusiasm. When Stewart is behind the desk, “The Daily Show” pulls in an average of 1.7 million viewers, more than double the key ratings of its predecessor, Trevor Noah, according to Nielsen data that includes three days of delayed viewing .
The rotating cast of correspondents who take over anchoring duties every other day of the week draws about 770,000 viewers, Nielsen said.
Mr. Stewart’s return is benefiting the entire show. Last year, when “The Daily Show” used a series of guest hosts, the show averaged about 620,000 viewers between February and May, according to Nielsen. When Trevor Noah hosted “The Daily Show” in 2022, the show averaged just over 550,000 viewers.
This year, Maddow’s show has averaged 2.5 million viewers. Alex Wagner, host of MSNBC at 9 pm weekdays except Mondays, averages 1.4 million viewers.
Ms. Maddow continues to appear on MSNBC during major political events, such as primary nights and the State of the Union address. Some fans record their Monday show to watch later: “The Rachel Maddow Show” has the largest DVR viewership of any MSNBC show, with more than 900,000 additional viewers watching it in the week after its Monday broadcast, according to Nielsen.
Of course, conservative cable news hosts have their own loyal followings. In May, Fox News shows “The Five” (three million) and “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2.7 million) averaged more viewers than Maddow (2.4 million).
Stewart, who originally left “The Daily Show” in 2015, tried out his own version of a weekly streaming show, “The Problem,” on Apple TV+. Stewart left that show after having disagreements with Apple executives, but also faced challenges gaining traction with viewers.
However, it was his return to his old cable stomping grounds that catapulted Stewart back into the political conversation.
“I watched him when I was a kid, which was years and years ago,” said Alex Forlenza, a 24-year-old researcher at Columbia, as he waited in line to watch a taping with Stewart. “’The Problem’ wasn’t that good. But so far I’ve enjoyed it on ‘The Daily Show.'”
J. Eduardo Moreno contributed reports.