Amid a ratings surge, “Daily Show” expands staff

Convinced that its ratings surge will last, “The Daily Show” has finally beefed up its team of correspondents.
The show has added Troy Iwata, Josh Johnson and Grace Kuhlenschmidt. Previously, the team had dwindled to four main people – Ronny Chieng, Desi Lydic, Jordan Klepper and Michael Kosta – plus occasional use of Dulce Sloan and Lewis Black.
Comedy Central is giving the show a one-week break now (stuffing the week with marathons of “Seinfeld,” “The Office” and “South Park”), but will return to its schedule on May 6: New “Daily Show” episodes are at 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, rerunning at 1:25 a.m. and then going to Paramount+.
The Monday hours are hosted by Jon Stewart (shown here) – the source of the recent surge. Comedy Central said the new hires are “on the heels of ‘The Daily Show’s’ huge ratings growth,” a claim that Nielsen seem to back up.
Stewart originally hosted the show at its peak, from 1999 to 2015. At one point, it won 10 straight Emmys for best variety show or best variety-talk show. Its correspondents went on to their own shows, including John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee and Steve Carell.
Trevor Noah took over in 2015 and stayed for seven years, including a pandemic stretch of shows from home. When he left (Dec. 8, 2022), the show hit a doldrums – 14 months with no regular host, declining ratings and the actors’ and writers’ strikes.
The try spell ended this Feb. 12, with Stewart doing Mondays (through the election) and others on other days. A recent Hollywood Reporter story offered this comparison:
— During that dry spell, a typical “Daily Show” averaged only 336,000 viewers.
— Mondays with Stewart now average 880,000.
— Even the other days are up. They average 435,000 – up 5 per cent from the Noah time and 29 per cent from the rotating-host time.
— Overall, the show now averages 546,000, a 62-percent jump from last year.