Jon Stewart’s Finale Earned The Daily Show Its Second Highest Ratings Ever

Jon Stewart might be gone, but The Daily Show will live on with new host Trevor Noah. Yet the former’s departure from the Comedy Central flagship program he helped built didn’t stop it from earning the show’s second highest ratings ever.

CNN’s Frank Pallotta broke the news Friday afternoon, noting that Stewart’s final episode nabbed Comedy Central 3.5 million viewers during Thursday night’s broadcast:

BREAKING: Jon Stewart’s final @TheDailyShow was watched by 3.5M viewers, according to Comedy Central. Second-most viewed of the series.

— Frank Pallotta (@frankpallotta) August 7, 2015

Brian Stelter subsequently broke down these numbers in comparison to Stewart’s 16-year tenure on the air. The result? The comedian’s final episode was his second highest ever, just behind the 3.6 million views earned by The Daily Show‘s interview with then-Senator Barack Obama ahead of the 2008 elections:

Comedy Central says Stewart’s 3.5 mil viewer total is @TheDailyShow‘s #2 episode ever. #1 was 3.6 mil for pre-2008 election episode w/ Obama — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 7, 2015

Yet Stelter was quick to point out that these were just broadcast numbers, saying “many Jon Stewart fans watch online.” According to Comedy Central, the complete episode has already been streamed over one million times:

Caveat about @TheDailyShow TV ratings: many Jon Stewart fans watch online. There’ve already been 1 mil full episode streams of the finale

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 7, 2015

[Image via screengrab]

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