Within the years since Stewart walked away from The Every day Present, the media panorama has modified and late night time has struggled to retain viewers. With document numbers of individuals turning to streaming or selecting to observe clips on social media after a present airs, promoting income for six of the highest late-night reveals has fallen by 50% since 2014 and by greater than 60 % from their 2016 peak.
It is also no secret that viewership for The Every day Present has dropped since Stewart’s departure amid this new dynamic. Though his successor, South African comic Trevor Noah, had a faithful following, the present didn’t have the identical attraction: Throughout Stewart’s last season, The Every day Present attracted about 1.3 million viewers, based on the Related Press. With Noah on the helm, the present averaged about 385,000 viewers.
Whereas Stewart’s comeback in 2024 is not prone to change the fractured media panorama, it might convey some renewed consideration and pleasure to the fading attraction of late-night dwell tv.
“I believe it brings a jolt of vitality, publicity and curiosity to late-night TV,” mentioned Kristen Baldwin, tv critic for Leisure Weekly.
And that jolt of curiosity could not come a second too quickly for The Every day Present in a aggressive media world that gives a dizzying array of choices from TikTok to Netflix and past. Marcus Collins, scientific assistant professor of selling on the Ross Faculty of Enterprise, College of Michigan and writer of For the Tradition, means that Stewart’s presence might convey some viewers again to dwell or cable tv.
“Stewart’s return will doubtless be an adrenaline rush to late-night tv, creating the appointment-based viewing alternative, if just for Monday nights, that linear tv wants,” Collins explains. “There was a decline in viewership for The Every day Present after Stewart left, however I think about a variety of these individuals will come again.”
Why will they arrive again? As a result of, Collins says, Stewart provides one thing sorely missing within the cultural zeitgeist: a novel type of “smart social and political commentary.” And Stewart brings this up within the midst of a extremely charged US presidential election yr.
“Stewart gives a voice that, whereas robust in his beliefs, has no drawback criticizing either side of the aisle and attending to the guts of the matter in methods which are each sensible and clear,” Collins explains. “That is tremendous highly effective stuff, and it is a white area in linear late-night TV that is fully empty.”
If early numbers are any indication, Collins could also be on to one thing. Stewart’s epic return on Monday drew practically two million whole viewers through simulcasts, Paramount reported. That is the most-watched broadcast of the present in additional than 5 years.
A cheaper late-night mannequin
With well-paid hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, late night time manufacturing is dear. Estimates put the salaries of each Fallon and Colbert at round $16 million and $15 million respectively, whereas Stewart was reportedly paid someplace between $25 million and $30 million. Amid this actuality, late-night choices have shrunk. After James Corden left The Late Late Present with James Corden in 2023, CBS canceled the present fairly than discover a substitute host.
However Stewart’s one-night-a-week return, which can embody a rotating solid of different hosts for the remainder of the week, may very well be an instance or prototype for the late-night trade to observe. It provides a less expensive method that different reveals might take and one which may be extra intriguing to viewers.
“I believe Stewart’s return will present inspiration for different late-night reveals. He is solely on at some point per week. That is an fascinating mannequin for different reveals,” Collins mentioned. “Think about if extra networks have been programmed this manner. It provides them the flexibleness to work with unimaginable expertise with out an enormous funding on both aspect.”
In different phrases, you get each novelty and familiarity on the identical time, says Collins, who suggests this method might sign to different networks the artistic prospects out there.
