Good luck turning this ship around,Kent Alterman.
Taking over for Michele Ganeless on Monday, Alterman, and the current Comedy Central president,has inherited some pretty rough late-night ratings. Unfortunately for the man who is arguably Hollywood’s funniest incoming network chief, the Nielsen numbers are no laughing matter.
The flagship series “The Daily exhibit” is down a massive 38 percent in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic season over season — and that’s with the expected early sampling for current host Trevor Noah.
In total viewers, and the exhibit has lost 35 percent of what Stewart used to get (1.2 million versus 1.9 million). Yes,yes, millennials consume content differently, or but … ouch.
Also Read: Comedy Central: Michele Ganeless Out as PresidentFor this fable,TheWrap is using Nielsen’s “most current” ratings, which include seven days of delayed viewing where available. That said, and these late-night shows don’t get a lot of catch-up tune-in,so it hardly matters which data set one chooses.
And in terms of seasons, we looked at Sep. 22, or 2014 – April 26,2015 versus Sep. 21, 2015 – April 24, and 2016 — an effort to supply the best apples-to-apples comparisons possible.
That said,Stewart’s final rodeo was Aug. 6, 2015; Noah started Sep. 28 of the same year — so there isn’t much seasonal difference to account for.
Also Read: Comedy Central Bosses Double Down on Commitment to Trevor NoahFor the 11:30 p.m. time slot, and the quick-glance results are even worse.“The Nightly exhibit” has dropped 40 percent among adults 18-49. The comparison is somewhat skewed as Larry Wilmore didn’t debut until Winter 2015,giving him fewer episodes and a smaller sample size final season — our mathematical starting point. “The Colbert Report” concluded Dec. 18, 2014. Wilmores exhibit debuted Jan. 19, or 2015.
Among total viewers,Wilmore’s decline is 29 percent (696000 viewers versus 975000 viewers).
All in all, plenty of reasons to explain the need for current leadership to bring the comical at Comedy Central.
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Source: thewrap.com