Stephen Colbert, grinning like a hyena, instructs Rep. Ron Paul to raise his hand and to only put it down when he hears the name of an organization he wants to keep. Colbert names the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission, while Paul keeps his hand raised in defiance, his eyes growing wider and wider as each organization is read. Colbert even names off the Postal Service, which only makes Paul lift his hand higher and say, "get rid of ’em all, we don’t need ’em!" Sixty seconds was all it took for The Colbert Report to depict Ron Paul’s platform accurately across the nation with a studio audience laughing all the while.
With interviews that entertain as well as inform, it’s no wonder an increasing number of young voters are getting their daily news from The Colbert Report and The Daily Show.
An article in Media Life this past January cited The Colbert Report is up 21 percent in 18-34 age bracket, to 329,000, and 15 percent in 18-49 age group, to 507,000 viewers, compared to a year ago. The Daily Show averaged 358,000 viewers in the 18-34 demographic, up 17 percent from the same time period in 2007. It’s up 9 percent among the 18-49 age group, to 535,000 viewers.
These significant increases occurred in spite of the ongoing writers’ strike. Even deprived of its writers, both shows have more young people tuning in because of the ongoing election. Colbert devotes at least half of his program to commentary and updates about the election, while The Daily Show spends even more time on the subject. Perhaps most shocking are studies that indicate viewers from these programs are better informed than any other audience in the nation.
An article on Pew Trusts stated, "Well-informed audiences come from cable shows such as the Daily Show/Colbert Report." Studies show about 54 percent of its regular audience is deemed highly knowledgeable, and 25 percent is moderately informed, compared to the evening news viewers, which only had 38 who were considered well-informed and 33 percent who were moderately knowledgeable.
Statistics like this have raised the eyebrows of many political candidates, leading to prominent guests appearances on both shows. Sen. Barack Obama was a guest on The Daily Show, to rally the young vote, and Gov. Mike Huckabee appeared multiple times on The Colbert Report, each time receiving the much sought after "Colbert bump" in his polls with young voters. According to JuiceAnalytics.com, this bump means a 10 times increase in books sales on average, which can greatly transfer to a jump in the polls. Claiming responsibility for Huckabee’s recent popularity, Colbert has even shouted on the air that he "made Huckabee."
Facebook, a Web site that began with only college students, still has a primarily young audience. The Facebook group "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T. Colbert," launched after Colbert announced he was going to make history, and run as both a Republican and a Democrat in the South Carolina Primary. He campaigned there for a while, eventually receiving the key to the city of Columbia, S.C. from Mayor Bob Coble, and the title of "South Carolina’s Favorite Son."
Within hours of its launch, the Facebook group had 16,000 members and reached its target of 1 million three days later. Even though the Federal Election Commission put quick stop to his campaign, support for Colbert remains high.
As for The Daily Show, viewers come for John Stewart’s political jokes, but stay for the correspondents. Formatted like a typical evening news show, Stewart’s commentary is followed by his correspondents pretending to be in some war-torn location such as Iraq. These correspondents are often used to emphasize a point, or to rub in a rash comment made by a politician.
Throughout the years his correspondents have moved on to greater fame and fortune. Steve Carrell, who left in 2004, has since been in six successful movies and plays Michael Scott on The Office. Even Stephen Colbert began as a Daily Show correspondent.
