Jon Stewart’s Daily Show Farewell Draws 3.5 Million Viewers

Jon Stewart’s final episode as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show drew 3.5 million total viewers (live + same day), the second-most viewed Daily Show behind President Barack Obama’s appearance on the Oct. 29, 2008 episode, according to the network.

Of the 3.5 million viewers of Thursday’s hour-long episode, 1.8 million were in the adults 18-49 demo. In addition, Comedy Central said there were 1 million full-episode streams across the Comedy Central app, Hulu and thedailyshow.com.

The Aug. 6 episode outdrew other recent late-night finales, including Conan O’Brien’s final Late Night in 2009, Stephen Colbert’s final Colbert Report last December, Craig Ferguson’s final Late Late Show last December and Chelsea Handler’s final Chelsea Lately last August.

Thursday’s Daily Show was the franchise’s most social episode ever, according to the Nielsen Social Guide. On Twitter, 117,000 users sent 233,400 tweets about the show, seen by 4.3 million people.