Daily Show No. 1, Beats Leno, Letterman

Big guns play second fiddle for first time in years

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 5, 2010 8:04 AM CDT

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Daily Show No. 1, Beats Leno, Letterman — In this Oct. 27, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama gestures during a commercial break as he talks with Jon Stewart in a taping of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

It’s been a good few weeks for Jon Stewart: The Daily Show was the top-rated late-night talk show in October—the first such show in at least a decade whose full month’s average beat Letterman’s and Leno’s, says the Hollywood Reporter. Stewart reeled in 1.3 million viewers, compared to 1.2 million each for the Late Show and Tonight Show.

But NBC and CBS aren’t happy with the claim, arguing that Comedy Central wasn’t counting repeats; eliminate those, and the networks are back on top, they argue. Meanwhile, Letterman beat out Leno in all key stats (overall viewership and among the 18-49 and 25-54 crowds) for the week ending Oct. 29—the first time since Leno returned to the Tonight Show.
(More The Daily Show stories.)

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