Comedy Central To Do Themed Stunts of Daily Show, Colbert
Move Aimed at Bolstering Ratings For Reruns During Writers Strike
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/9/2007 6:58:00 AM
(Strike Photos)
In order to bolster its late-night ratings during the strike, Comedy Central will so some stunting of its reruns of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, including trotting out some "hotties," officials said Friday.
In order to keep viewership from flagging, Comedy Central will start running themed weeks of reruns of both shows. For example, next week the network will have “Hard Hitters Week,” airing reruns of both shows with the best head-to-head interviews.
Guests on those reruns include Sen. John McCain, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Penn and Chris Matthews.
For the week of Nov. 19, Comedy Central has scheduled “Singing with Stephen Week,” with Colbert Report installments featuring musical guests such as Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Tony Bennett.
And the week of Nov. 26 will be “Hotties in the Hot Seat” of both The Daily Show and Colbert, with guests like Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Sienna Miller and Paulina Porizkova.
The first three days of the strike this week, Monday through Wednesday, The Daily Show averaged a 0.8 household rating and a 0.7 18-to-49 rating, with The Colbert Report averaging a 0.6 for both household and 18-to-49 ratings.
The prior week, when both shows were in new episodes, the ratings were in the area of 1.2 household and 0.9 18-to-49 for The Daily Show, and 1.0 household and 0.8 18-to-49 for The Colbert Report.
Both shows typically see roughly a 30% decline in ratings when they are in reruns, drops that Comedy Central wants to stem with its themed stunt weeks.
