Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” kicked off 2026 with its best young adult ratings in more than eight years. According to the network, for the first quarter of 2026, “The Daily Show” averaged a 0.579 rating among adults 18-49, its best mark in the demo since the fourth quarter of 2017 (0.593 rating).
Leading that demo surge is Monday night episodes of “The Daily Show,” hosted by Jon Stewart, which for that night is currently the No. 1 show in late night with adults 18-49. But also posting year-over-year growth are the Tuesday-through-Thursday episodes hosted on a weekly rotating basis by “The Daily Show” news team members Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta and Desi Lydic.
In linear, “The Daily Show” is up a huge 52% in adults 18-49 year-to-year this quarter vs. 2025 (0.579 rating vs. 0.381 rating). Stewart’s Monday episodes so far this year are averaging a 0.709 rating in 18-49, up 30% from 0.547 rating last year. The rest of the news team’s episodes are averaging a 0.521 rating in 18-49 this year, up a big 70% from last year’s 0.306 rating.
And when it comes to quarterly share with adults 18-49, the first quarter of 2026 reps the show’s best since the third quarter of 2015. The show’s share (3.65) is up 44% from last year (2.53).
In total viewers, “The Daily Show” is averaging 1.05 million viewers, up 11% from last year’s first quarter (945,000) and its best quarter in two years.
Meanwhile, in social, Comedy Central reports that “The Daily Show” is the most-viewed cable program in 2026 so far. “The Daily Show” is boasting its best quarter ever for views (2.5 billion, up 56% from 2025), engagements (144.7 million, up 28%) and total minutes consumed (4.7 billion, up 57%).
The show also says it has the most-watched TV entertainment channel on YouTube, with more than 615.5 million views.
The Daily Show airs at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central and streams the next morning on Paramount+. Stewart hosts on Monday, and this week Chieng hosts the rest of the week. Joining Stewart, Chieng, Johnson, Klepper, Kosta and Lydic and “The Daily Show” correspondents Troy Iwata and Grace Kuhlenschmidt.
This week’s guests include InterAct International co-CEOs Aziz Abu Sarah & Moaz Inon on Monday, “BTS: The Return” filmmaker Bao Nguyen on Tuesday, “The Miniature Wife” star Zoe Lister-Jones on Wednesday and “Beef” creator/EP/writer/director Lee Sung Jin on Thursday.
(Per Comedy Central, data comes from Nielsen Big Data + Panel for 4Q25 thru the Present, Panel Only for historical; L+3 coverage ratings, national share; Competitive rank based on P18-49/L+3 000s, 3+ TCs, Latenight Mon/11p-3a. Social- SCR, ListenFirst, Domo.)
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