On Politics, We Can Always See the Whites of Their Eyes.
Stewart and Colbert Losing their 'Cool'
by: Scott Martin posted: 2009-06-16 16:15:00
Viewed 413 times. 5 Comments.
Forbes notes that the average viewer age of the Comedy Central stars has gone up by five years.
On their late night talk shows, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert love to refer to their audiences as dorm-living, pot-smoking couch potatoes. But the reality is that their average viewer is more likely to be a hard-working Dad or even a retiree.So while Stewart's show grabbed big buzz this week for skewering The New York Times' for being the kind of news a "grandmother" would love, in May the median age of The Daily Show viewers crept up five years to 41.4, and the median age of The Colbert Report viewers was up five years to 38.3 , according to Nielsen.
This dramatic change is since May of 2008. What has changed since last year? A couple things. First off, no election cycle. It can be argued that younger viewers are less likely than older viewers to seek out political knowledge absent an upcoming battle.
More significantly, I suspect, is the content of the two shows. A year ago, both shows regularly skewered a Republican administration, while fawning over the young hipster, Barack Obama. Now that Obama is in power, both shows have dealt with the new administration's ongoing gaffes and leadership failures. Perhaps those "dorm-living, pot-smoking couch potatoes" don't much enjoy having their beliefs challenged and their President mocked.
Compared to May 2008, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 34 (the most coveted demographic) watching The Daily Show fell 14%, 15% for The Colbert Report. At the same time, the number of people older than 55 watching The Daily Show rose by 25%, 22% for The Colbert Report.
But older viewers are on the rise. I doubt this is in the form of more conservatives tuning in, but rather an increase in viewership among the generally older and more moderate Hillary Clinton-voters, ie, the PUMAs. Many of these voters are appalled at the growth of government and destruction of business currently ongoing. Not ready to start listening to a Rush or a Hannity, they instead look for an occasionally critical point of view coming from the left - and Stewart and Colbert are all that they can find.
Despite the overall increase in audience, Comedy Central sees no humor in it.
"When you start to see the age creep up on a show like that, you wonder whether the show is sustainable," says Laura Caraccioli-Davis, head of entertainment at Starcom... "It's systematic of the fact that at Comedy Central they need to continue developing shows for younger viewers."
If Stewart and Colbert fail, what next? Perhaps then it will be time for a conservative voice on Comedy Central, who will have the opportunity to expose young minds to the wisdom and commonsense of the right.
Remember Rush's old late-night show? Something like that could be huge in the next couple years. We can only hope.
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Comments 5
Whether or not that is true, if so I would assume they were boring and not funny a year ago. So what happened to their audience?
The daily show has been on a long time so this makes sense. They have decent skit humor. I liked Craig Kilborn as host. The format of the show has changed radically. At the start they emphasized skit comedy and fake news but it has shifted away from this since the beginning to news and mockery. I have not watched the show continuously since the very beginning, but the good clips (NYT) show up in the swarm. Some small percentage of Colbert survives. He can be clever, but his improvisational abilities are poor and his act fails him.
When comedians are more like news people and news people are more like comedians it must be a sure sign judgment day is coming soon...
It's not that the younger group prefer the Republican bashing. It's just that it was much more funny that way, because Bush brought such easy material to rip on. I don't watch Colbert anymore because I'm tired of the bit he's doing. It's funny, but it has a ceiling. That doesn't mean its not funny anymore, or that I don't enjoy it, its just that I would much rather watch something else because I can see it coming from a mile away.
I watched these guys during the Bush administration, because I was just so frustrated with the terrible leadership and decisions they brought. As soon as Obama was voted in, Stewart said something like "we did it!" For me, it felt like my duty as a "fake news" fan was done. Making fun of Bush was literally comedic justice, and it seemed to be the only way we could get it. And lucky for these guys it was way too easy and it made for good entertainment.
It may sound hard to believe, but I don't think Jon Stewart is biased. He wants fairness and sensibility in news coverage and from his government. If Obama went out today and got busted for marijuana possession (or something similar to what Clinton did) , you can bet on it he would be ripping on him the next day. The audience has changed because the political environment has changed. I hope a different demographic can find something in the Daily Show, because it has so much to offer.
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Hey, it is not they are losing their cool - they are boring to the nth degree and oh so not funny. (No, I do not watch because they are boring and not funny.)