Watch-Time Surges For Late Night Shows Post-Strikes

Data from Tubular Labs reveals that The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert have all seen dramatic bumps in watch-time.

Watch-Time Surges For Late Night Shows Post-Strikes
YouTube: The Daily Show

Late night shows went dark amid last year’s entertainment work stoppages. But those programs appear to have watch-time rising rapidly in the time since. Data from Tubular Labs reveals that The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert have all seen dramatic bumps in watch-time: 

  • U.S. minutes watched grew for the popular late night shows by over 4x year-over-year across YouTube and Facebook. 
  • Even in the last month, The Daily Show’s climbed by 33% and Kimmel’s grown by 17%. The shows have all grown audience significantly as well, with The Daily Show seeing a 28% increase in unique domestic viewers month-over-month.
  • The Daily Show is also fueling watch-time increases per user as well. On average, U.S. audiences are tuning in for 30.2 minutes per month to The Daily Show content across YouTube and Facebook. It was the country’s No. 6 news & politics page across both platforms, by watch-time.

Of course, The Daily Show’s year-long rise can also be attributed in part to the return of long-time host Jon Stewart. The program’s most popular videos in June were largely Stewart discussing hot topics at length, like the Donald Trump conviction and the debate between Trump and Joe Biden.