Last Thursday was the showdown between Comedy Central’s John Stewart and CNBC’s Jim Cramer. The interview of the latter by the former on The Dailly Show was the climax of an unexpected exchange between the two cable stars, begun when Stewart took aim at CNBC’s financial news coverage. I was looking forward to the show and was somewhat surprised to see how much of the encounter seemed to be more of an oversight hearing on financial reporting, and less of a funny interview.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwUXx4DR0wo&hl=en&fs=1]

This editorial stance reminded me of John Stewart’s criticism in 2004 of CNN’s Crossfire, whose senstional news and style he said was “hurting America.” During that incident John Stewart held that The Daily Show inherently lacked the same responsibilities as Crossfire since “the show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.” Still, The Daily Show is clearly not just a comedy show, not since 1999, when John Stewart and Ben Karlin from The Onion arrived, and changed the show’s tack, to focus on more political topics, also while striving to be more socially conscious. With these changes the show’s audience more than tripled and subsequently the show regularly has A-list guests like Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

THE DAILY SHOW VIEWERSHIP
Pre-1999 average (Pre-John Stewart): 0.3 million viewers
2003 average: 1.0 million viewers
October 2007 average: 3.0 million viewers
January 7, 2008 (first show post writer’s strike): 1.45 million viewers
September 15-19, 2008 average (week with Tony Blair): 2.0 million viewers
October 8,2008 (interview with Michelle Obama): 3.0 million viewers
October 29, 2008 (interview with Barack Obama): 3.6 million viewers
January 19, 2009 (Inauguration Day): 2.6 million viewers
March 12, 2009 (interview with Jim Cramer): 2.3 million viewers

The rise in ratings has occurred somewhat in parallel to the Bush Presidency. Given the end of that Presidency, I had been wondering if The Daily Show would no longer have as much source material, and that it might lose its relevance and popularity. This last incident with CNBC proves the show will maintain both.