The Daily Show

Did You Know?

• The show initially used New York PBS station WNET's facilities until late 1998, then moved to NEP Studio 54, which later became home to The Colbert Report.
• On July 11, 2005, the show premiered in its new studio, NEP Studio 52, at 733 11th Avenue.
• The show's writers begin each day with a morning meeting reviewing material from major newspapers, the Associated Press, cable news channels, and websites.

Format

During Trevor Noah's tenure, each episode began with announcer Drew Birns announcing the date and the introduction, "From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah." Previously, the introduction was "This is The Daily Show, the most important television program, ever." The host opens the show with a monologue drawing from current news stories and issues. The show had previously divided its news commentary into sections known as "Headlines", "Other News", and "This Just In"; these titles were dropped from regular use on October 28, 2002, and were last used on March 6, 2003. Some episodes begin with a 1–3-minute intro on a small story before moving to the main story of the night; the segment is currently called "Headlines". The monologue is often followed by a segment featuring an exchange with a correspondent, either at the anchor desk or reporting from a false location in front of a greenscreen. Correspondents typically present absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against the host's straight man. Some correspondent segments involve traveling to different locations to file comedic reports and conduct interviews. Correspondents are introduced as the show's "senior" specialist in the story's subject, ranging from general titles like Senior Political Analyst to absurdly specific ones. The cast is diverse, and many sarcastically portray extreme stereotypes of themselves. While correspondents reporting abroad are usually in-studio in front of a greenscreen, on rare occasions they have recorded pieces on location, such as Rob Riggle reporting from Iraq in 2007 and from China in 2008.

History

The Daily Show was created by Lizz Winstead and Madeleine Smithberg and premiered on Comedy Central on July 22, 1996, marketed as a replacement for Politically Incorrect. Smithberg, a graduate of Binghamton University, was co-creator and former executive producer, having previously worked as an executive producer of Steve Harvey's Big Time and a talent coordinator for Late Night with David Letterman. The show aimed to parody conventional newscasts, featuring a comedic monologue of the day's headlines from anchor Craig Kilborn, as well as mockumentary-style on-location reports, in-studio segments, and debates from regular correspondents Winstead, Brian Unger, Beth Littleford, and A. Whitney Brown. Common segments included "This Day in Hasselhoff History" and "Last Weekend's Top-Grossing Films, Converted into Lira", parodying entertainment news shows. Each show ended with a segment called "Your Moment of Zen" showing random video clips. Originally recorded without a studio audience, a studio audience was incorporated for the second season and has remained since.

Correspondents, contributors and staff

The show's correspondents have two principal roles: experts with satirical senior titles that the main host interviews about certain issues, or hosts of field reporting segments. The current team of hosting correspondents, collectively known as "The Best Fking News Team", are Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, and Josh Johnson. Troy Iwata and Grace Kuhlenschmidt are non-hosting correspondents. Current contributors include Lewis Black and Charlamagne tha God. Ben Karlin says that the on-air talent contribute in many ways to the material they perform, playing an integral role in the creation of their field pieces and being involved with their scripted studio segments. The show has boosted the careers of several well-known comedians. Steve Carell, a correspondent from 1999 to 2005, credits Stewart and The Daily Show with his success. Stephen Colbert, the longest-serving correspondent, became host of the spin-off The Colbert Report and later replaced David Letterman as host of CBS's Late Show. Ed Helms, a former correspondent from 2002 to 2006, starred on NBC's The Office and in The Hangover. John Oliver, after filling in as host in 2013, went on to host Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. Former correspondent Samantha Bee launched Full Frontal with Samantha Bee in 2016, with her husband Jason Jones as executive producer. Hasan Minhaj, the last correspondent hired during Stewart's tenure, left in 2018 to host Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix.

Reception

In 2008, the show pulled in between 1.45 and 1.6 million viewers each night, a strong number for cable. By the end of 2013, that figure had climbed to 2.5 million. Its audience tends to be younger and more educated than those of traditional news programs. A 2004 Nielsen study for Comedy Central found the median viewer age was 35. During the 2004 presidential election, the show attracted more men aged 18 to 34 than Nightline, Meet the Press, Hannity & Colmes, or any evening news broadcast. Because of this, figures like Howard Dean and Ted Koppel suggested that Jon Stewart was effectively a news source for young people, whether he meant to be or not. A 2016 New York Times analysis of the 50 most-liked TV shows on Facebook showed The Daily Show was most popular in liberal-leaning coastal cities, peaking in San Francisco and hitting its low point in Alabama. Between January 2014 and January 2023, the show lost 75% of its audience, dropping from 2.2 million to an average of 570,000 nightly viewers. Over that same period, the average viewer age rose from 48.2 to 63.3, with only 30,000 viewers per broadcast in the 18–34 demographic. The show’s writers reject the idea that it has become a news source for young people. Stewart argues that Americans live in an “age of information osmosis,” where no single source can provide all the news, and that the show works comedically only because viewers already know the basics. “Our show would not be valuable to people who didn’t understand the news,” he says. A 2006 Indiana University study found little difference in substantive news coverage between The Daily Show and prime-time network news, concluding both prioritize infotainment and ratings over information.