Final Episode of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

[SlackerInc]

@TriPolar

How many times has Bear Gryllis shamed congress into acting? How many idiotic CNN debate shows has he shut down? How many people have ever seen or heard of the Jon Stewart and The Daily Show compared to Bear Gryllis and whatever the hell show he’s on? When he gets the Boss to play his final show we can start the comparisons.

Jon even admitted in his penultimate episode that he hasn’t really had much impact.

It was definitely cool to see Bruce play him out. I was a little shocked that I had to explain to my kids (12 and 15) who Springsteen was though. :eek:

[Sam_Lowry]

@SlackerInc

But how can it make a huge impact among the general public when so few of them watch it? I grant your point that the show gets perfectly fine ratings within its niche. The network and advertisers are perfectly happy, I’m sure. But that doesn’t jibe with the notion so many people have that this is where everyone under 40 is getting their news. I don’t see any of the coverage acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of Americans, including Millennials, do not watch the show. And I’d bet that among those of us who have been viewers over the years (I actually started watching it when Craig Kilborn hosted it and would ask guests wacky questions like how many times they wear pants before washing them), I’m far from the only one who would be surprised when seeing these numbers and learning that we are actually part of a small subculture that feels big because we link up with each other and see our taste reflected in a lot of media coverage.

I guess it depends on how you define a huge impact. Even if I’m talking with a non-viewer of the Daily Show, I could talk about an interview that I saw, or some political policy that Stewart was talking about, or some ridiculous political thing that the correspondents were talking about. It inspires discussion, and sometimes action. While if I’m talking with a non-viewer of Hawaii 5-0 about what I saw on the latest episode, I wouldn’t really be able to discuss much other than describe the hot guys on the show, and then listen to them talk about whatever mindless show they like to watch.

[TriPolar]

@SlackerInc

It was definitely cool to see Bruce play him out. I was a little shocked that I had to explain to my kids (12 and 15) who Springsteen was though. :eek:

Oh man! Get used to it you old geezer

I do think Jon and the show appealed to a narrow segment of viewers, it was late night, heavily political, and very intellectual*.

*intellectual=boring for the majority of TV viewers

[Quimby]

@SlackerInc

I have vaguely heard of him (he’s some sort of tough survival guy) but I was not aware of the existence of that show until I was perusing TV by the Numbers to get a sense of how that 3.5 million number compared to other shows. Another one that jumped out at me: it’s roughly half as many viewers as a repeat of NCIS: New Orleans got last night. A repeat! Of yet another show I had never heard of. It is so bizarre, because everyone in my Facebook and Twitter feeds talks about *TDS *constantly.

Furthermore, The Daily Show has long been touted as “where Millennials get their news”, yet (after doing a little quick research) it turns out that fewer than a million of the 80 million in that generation watch the show, and at least twice as many watch the stodgy old network news shows. It’s clear that Stewart has been a very influential figure among journalists, but among the general public hardly anyone watched him over the years.

Which makes me wonder: what does the name “Jon Stewart” mean to the 98 percent of Americans who didn’t watch him? “That guy people in the media are always going on about, but who doesn’t really interest me”? Or are they just not aware of him at all?

I would bet his audience was one of the wealthiest and I know studies have shown it is the most informed on TV. Advertisers love the former and the latter tend to create the Buzz, hence his popularity.

That aside, yes in hard numbers more people get their news form Networks but I would bet the average age of their viewership starts with a 6. News ratings have tumbled and the Daily Shows rose to a point and stayed there.

Plus, as far as his ratings, you are comparing a prime time network show to a late night cable show. That’s not Apples and Oranges; it’s Apples and Asparagus.

And beyond all that, he was funny and had charisma and changed the media by forcing Cable news to be a little more accountable. I’m going to miss him and can’t wait to see what he does next.

[Gatopescado]

@TriPolar

I do think Jon and the show appealed to a narrow segment of viewers, it was late night, heavily political, and very intellectual*.

I just realized something: I’ve been watching this show for 16 years at 8 o’clock (Dish runs the eastern feed for some reason out here).

I’ve never considered it a “late show”. Always been prime time.

And now I’ve deleted the timer on the DVR.