Final episode of "The Daily Show" nearly sets record
An all-star cast, tons of guest appearances, and a performance from Bruce Springsteen turned Jon Stewart's final episode of "The Daily Show" into a record-setting one.
The episode was the second most-watched in the series' history, according to a Comedy Central press release. Nielsen ratings say that 3.5 million people tuned in to watch #JonVoyage on Thursday night.
That's just shy of the 3.6 million who watched the October 29, 2008 episode featuring President Barack Obama.
That's only if you don't count the 1 million full episode views that came the next day through Hulu.
The show was the most socialed episode of the entire 16-year series, racking up 117,000 tweets that were viewed 26.4 million times by 4.3 million people.
Naturally, #JonVoyage beat out several other talk show host departures in viewers and the desired advertising demographics. Falling behind Stewart is "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (February 20, 2009), "The Colbert Report" (December 18, 2014), "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (December 19, 2014) and "Chelsea Lately (August 26, 2014), according to the release.
South African-born comedian Trevor Noah takes over Stewart's spot on "The Daily Show" on Sept. 28.
Bon voyage, Mr. Stewart.