Jon Stewart’s Return to ‘The Daily Show’ Averaged More Than 3 million Viewers

The final numbers are in: Jon Stewart’s February 12 return to  Comedy Central’s The Daily Show averaged more than 3 million total viewers across the night on live plus 3, which included simulcasts and the encore.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was No. 1 across all cable (originals and encores) at 11 p.m. among adults and people, according to Nielsen results. It posted triple-digit growth versus Trevor Noah’s final show; it was up 116% to 374k among people 18-49; up 129% to 498k among P25-54; and up 129% to 1.65 million among P2+.

It was the Daily Show‘s biggest premiere audience since August of 2017.

Comedy Central also added that Stewart’s return ranked as the No. 1 “news program” in cable across extended prime among P18-49 and P25-54, besting Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.Stewart returned after almost nine years to host the show Monday nights on Comedy Central through the presidential election. He had said “very much wanted to have some place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season,” which likely will include a rematch of Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency.

Stewart kicked off his return try saying “now where was I? I’m excited to be back. Why am I back, you may be asking yourselves, it’s a very reasonable question. I have committed a lot of crimes and from what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but take it up with the founders.”

“We’re going to have so much to talk about this year; the elections, maybe we’ll talk about China, AI, something a little lighter, Israel/Palestine,” he continued.