Liberal TV viewers have a new mantra: TGIM!
Monday nights have suddenly risen in the Nielsen ratings — and in national relevance — thanks to a rare confluence: two TV superstars of the political left who have limited its regularly scheduled broadcasts Until that one evening.
Jon Stewart, the “Daily Show” host and mentor to Bush- and Obama-era Democrats who made a surprise comeback in February, now hosts his old show on Mondays at 11 p.m. Rachel Maddow, who stepped back from her nightly MSNBC duties in 2022, retains a dedicated hour-long show every Monday at 9 p.m.
In this chaotic age of media, their once-a-week programs have become something of an appointment viewing staple. Ms. Maddow’s Monday program is MSNBC’s highest-rated hour of the entire week. Mr. Stewart’s “Daily Show” far outpaces the show’s other weekend editions, and has proven a rare breakout hit for Comedy Central.
For Democrats worried about a close election, Ms. Maddow and Mr. Stewart represent a special kind of solace: seasoned partisan warriors who have led viewers through past setbacks in the political arena.
“‘Tell me everything is going to be OK’ is the norm,” said Martin Kaplan, who runs the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, adding that Mr. Stewart’s monologue is now the first thing he hears about from friends on Tuesday mornings. “It’s, ‘Did you see? Did you hear? Did you see?’”
His success on Monday is a sign of the stability of television personalities who carved out a niche with viewers years before the news landscape was fragmented into hundreds of tiny outlets.
For decades, the conventional wisdom for talk shows was that a dedicated host had to appear five days a week to attract an audience, because viewers had to get used to it. But in this new age of irregularly scheduled podcasts and on-demand streaming entertainment, viewers appear to be comfortable watching shows occasionally.
The anti-Trump audience on Monday nights also includes a rising star: Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former press secretary, whose MSNBC show airs once a week in prime time, Mondays at 8 p.m. Since starting in October, Ms. Psaki has increased viewership in her time slot by 9 percent.
While the hosts agree on many matters — for example, none believes Mr. Trump is fit to return to the presidency — their opinions represent a spectrum of viewpoints on the political left. Notably, Mr. Stewart has broken with Democratic orthodoxy by mocking Mr. Biden’s advancing age, pointing out that many voters have doubts about his physical and cognitive fitness.
Mr. Stewart’s first monologue, in February, included a desperate appeal to White House aides who gushed over their boss’s mental acuity — “You should film this! That would be cool to show people!” — and an onscreen headline that referred to the 2024 election as an “Antiques Roadshow.”
Mary Trump, Mr Trump's niece and a tireless critic, Punishment Mr Stewart's jokes are “'both sides are the same' rhetoric” and a “potential disaster for democracy”.
But judging by the crowd that gathered Monday afternoon outside the “Daily Show” studios on Manhattan’s far west side, Mr. Stewart’s iconoclasm has not dampened the enthusiasm of his fans.
Tom Locker, 46, drove two hours from Pennsylvania with his wife to watch a recent taping. Although he had fallen out of the habit of watching “The Daily Show” regularly, Mr. Stewart enticed him to watch again.
“We record everybody, but I record this one because I want to watch Monday’s show,” Mr. Loker said as he waited in line.
At a taping last month, Alexis Miller, a 41-year-old urban planner from Winnipeg, Canada, praised Mr. Stewart as a “cultural force.”
“He's an equal opportunity jokester and he doesn't pull punches,” he said.
Demand for tickets to see Mr. Stewart’s Monday taping was far higher than other days of the week, said two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share information from internal discussions.
And the show’s ratings underscore that level of enthusiasm. When Mr. Stewart is behind the desk, “The Daily Show” averages 1.7 million viewers, more than double the ratings of his predecessor, Trevor Noah, in the key demo, according to Nielsen data, which includes three-day delayed viewing.
The rotating team of reporters, who take turns hosting duties every other day of the week, is drawing about 770,000 viewers, Nielsen said.
The entire show is benefiting from Mr. Stewart’s return. Last year, when “The Daily Show” used multiple guest hosts, the show averaged about 620,000 viewers between February and May, according to Nielsen. When Trevor Noah was hosting “The Daily Show” in 2022, the program averaged more than 550,000 viewers.
This year, Ms. Maddow's show has averaged 2.5 million viewers. Alex Wagner, host of MSNBC's 9 o'clock hour on days other than Monday, 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 her Monday show to watch later: According to Nielsen, “The Rachel Maddow Show” has the most DVR viewers of any MSNBC show, with more than 900,000 additional viewers tuning in the week after her Monday broadcast.
Of course, conservative cable news hosts have their own loyal following. In May, the Fox News shows “The Five” (three million) and “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2.7 million) had more viewers than Ms. Maddow (2.4 million).
Mr. Stewart, who originally left “The Daily Show” in 2015, tried his own version of a weekly streaming program, “The Problem,” on Apple TV+. Mr. Stewart left that show after differences with Apple executives but also faced challenges gaining traction with viewers.
Still, it was the return of his old basic cable network that brought Mr. Stewart back into the political conversation.
“I saw him when I was a kid, which was many, many years ago,” said Alex Forlenza, a 24-year-old researcher at Columbia, who stood in line for the taping with Mr. Stewart. “'The Problem' wasn't that good. But his performance on 'The Daily Show,' I still love.”
J. Edward Moreno Contributed reporting.