Demographic Divergence Between Colbert, Stewart

by: Daniel De Groot

Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 19:21


From a PEW survey on American media, mostly about Limbaugh, I noticed this large difference in the ideological preferences of Stewart and Colbert's audiences:

ConservativeModerateLiberal
Daily Show222445
Colbert Report144536

I find this surprising, I wouldn't have expected this big a difference between their audiences.  Also, I would have picked Colbert as being more liberal than Stewart.  Thoughts? Mine are inside...

Daniel De Groot :: Demographic Divergence Between Colbert, Stewart
It's interesting that both liberals and conservatives drop off from Stewart to Colbert.  I sometimes wonder how well conservatives get what Colbert is doing, and I think this is some evidence they do, and really don't like it.  The whole Colbert persona is an ongoing satire on common right wing personality traits, assumptions and worldview.  

This is why I think Colbert is more liberal.  His whole show is actually a non-stop assault on conservative values.  Additionally, Stewart has  distaste for the extremes and the partisans, engages in equivalence fallacies and rhetorically plays up the center as if he is just mocking absurdity with no specific ideological mission.  It's as if it just so happens that there's more absurdity to mock on the right, but of course this is no coincidence.  I think Colbert gets this pattern better than Stewart.

To that end, it may be a good thing that Colbert attracts more moderates.  His message is not being heard just by the choir.

Not really sure why liberals drop off from Stewart to Colbert.  Maybe we don't tend to like Colbert's shtick, even knowing it is a satire it can be a bit much, particularly when he won't let his guests speak without interrupting (my only beef with Colbert, lighten up on the act with the guests who can't keep up).

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Demographic Divergence Between Colbert, Stewart | 32 comments
Yeah (4.00 / 2)
One can appreciate Colbert without having to watch him.

And damn you, anywho, Daniel, I was just about to post my own diary when this went up!  I know you're watching me, and I swear I'll find the hidden camera any day now!

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

I don't know how you do it (4.00 / 1)
Prolific, thy name is Rosenberg.  I tip my keyboard to you.
[ Parent ]
That's My Secret! (0.00 / 0)
I don't tip my keyboard.

I keep it on an even keel.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
I dunno, Rosenberg (0.00 / 0)
this "even keel" meme of yours sounds suspiciously "Centrist" to me.  
[ Parent ]
Interesting (0.00 / 0)
I sometimes wonder how well conservatives get what Colbert is doing, and I think this is some evidence they do, and really don't like it.

My racist uncle hated the Archie Bunker show. He was smart enough to know he was looking in a mirror, I guess.

I prefer Stewart to Colbert, generally. When Colbert is good, he's great. The Word, I think, is consistently his best stuff, and I think you just have to admire the consistency of his performance, when so much of it (the interviews) is improv. But the show drags sometimes, the Tek Jansen (?) bit, his adopted eagle, the hockey team, selling his sperm.... Less than compelling.

and you're right about Stewart, he does sometimes slip into false equivalence, and he's strained to find stuff funny about Obama. I remember one time he reproached his audience, "You know, you're allowed to laugh at him." What he was saying just wasn't funny. Obama's personality doesn't lend itself to humor.

makes some sense (0.00 / 0)
Superficially, Colbert slams both sides and thereby appeals to the independents. Stewart might make some balancing motions but he's still overtly liberal.

The truth about Saxby Chambliss
Timing Is Everything (4.00 / 3)
     I think you have to take into account that when Stewart is on, the broadcast networks are running local news, but when Colbert is on they're running Leno and Letterman (plus the rotting corpse of Nightline). There's just got to be a lot of falloff--I'm a very political person, but I'm usually more interested in stand-up comedy after a half hour of The Daily Show. Are more splits available, especially by age group?
but wouldn't self-identified moderates (0.00 / 0)
be just as likely to switch to Leno or Letterman, if not more likely? I find this puzzling. I agree with you that the drop-off must be large, but I know that they tried a lot of shows to follow Stewart, and Colbert had by far the least drop-off.

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[ Parent ]
Small Samples (4.00 / 2)
     First, let me say, desmoinesdem, big fan. Always find your posts of interest.
    I think the samples may be small enough to make a big difference. How many people do you think we're talking about here? Maybe 3 Million people watching Stewart on an average night? I don't know--that's just a guess. If half of them break away to another channel, and Colbert picks up another Million from people who were watching the local news or doing other things the previous half hour, that's a significant difference in their viewership.
    Also, not to put too fine a point on it, who are "moderates"? Often they're younger people, who haven't formed a coherent ideologocal perspective, and who may be less inclined to watch Letterman or Leno, who are old enough to be their parents.
    Obviously, I don't know enough about their audiences to discuss it with any confidence. But the differences are small enough (9 points among liberals and 8 among conservatives) that they might be explained by the differences between the samples.
[ Parent ]
that is puzzling (0.00 / 0)
I also would have thought that Colbert's show would attract the more liberal audience.

I have noticed that some of my friends got tired of Colbert's shtick, but I can't think of a convincing reason why moderates would not get bored.

How big is the drop-off between Stewart and Colbert? In other words, what percentage of Daily Show viewers are not regular Colbert viewers?

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Maybe liberals have to go to bed. (0.00 / 0)
I don't know. The correlation is not really that strong and many things could explain it. I prefer Colbert to Jon Stewart because Colbert is just nerdier and gets smarter guests. I have a feeling that Colbert's audience skews younger and probably more educated. Maybe those people don't like to pigenhole themselves on the political spectrum. I don't know. What's the Sigma on that difference? Is it even statistically relevant?

It's so easy to come up with explanations for correlations that any individual one should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

[ Parent ]
Speaking of small samples ... (4.00 / 2)
this would be a sample of one -- me. Actually two: My wife agrees with me.

I'm what you would call a mainstream Dem, pretty solidly progressive on social issues but much more conservative elsewhere. I'd probably tell a pollster I was a moderate. And I've gotta say, I rarely find Stewart even mildly entertaining, PARTICULARLY when he has an easy right wing target to go after. I react very viscerally negative, because of what I perceive as smarminess, arrogance, know-it-allness, and a general inside baseball wink-nod that I feel like is meant to appeal only to the kool(-ade) kids. Rubs me totally wrong, except for some of his "correspondents," who can be genuinely funny. I certainly don't want -- or feel like I'm getting -- a serious political show. I want funny in that time slot. And Colbert, though of course I know what he's doing, is genuinely a gifted comedian of the surreal, wacky variety, and I do find his show hilarious without, ironically, the smarminess. At least sometimes.

It wouldn't surprise me if the readers of this blog strongly prefer Stewart to Colbert. It appears to me that you are the primary audience targets.  

There Are Other Blogs (4.00 / 3)
     So Stewart "is meant to appeal only to the kool(-ade) kids", but it appears to you that "readers of this blog. . .are the primary audience targets"?
    Perhaps it would be possible for you to find other blogs more in tune with your sensibility.
[ Parent ]
I too prefer Colbert (0.00 / 0)
over Stewart.  I've never really like Stewart.  To me he seems very arrogant.
[ Parent ]
I'd say that Stewart is more blatantly liberal (4.00 / 3)
He, and nearly all the Daily Show correspondents, pretty explicitly approach issues and stories from a liberal point of view. Maybe once, if at all, per week, do they make fun of Democrats from an arguable anti-liberal perspective.  Even then, the humor is nowhere near as effective when directed at Democrats.  Additionally since the program is more current events/news based, the ideology of the staff shines through on a more consistent basis.

On the other hand, Colbert is more of a straight parody of a O'Reilly/Beck type show, making fun of the egomaniacal nature of the personality cult talk show format more than making fun of any particular ideology.  There are plenty of times that segments on Colbert that have no obvious ideological bent.  Even though it's still obvious that Colbert is pretty liberal himself, I would imagine it's easier to enjoy from a non-ideological perspective due to the frequent non-ideological segments.

yes (4.00 / 1)
stewart is more "clear" plus colbert has a lot of subpar segments (self-promos) as someone mentioned

I switched colbert off sometime in 2007 or 2008 when he was "mocking" krugman and his 'consciense of a liberal' book. I couldn't take it even when I knew what was happening...

[ Parent ]
Colbert is LOUD. (4.00 / 2)
His music, his screaming, Colbert is LOUD.   The Word has got to be his best.   The rest is hit or miss, hyper, and LOUD.  

Jon Stewart can be "goofy", which is not always funny from a grown man.   As opposed to LOUD schtick, Stewart is more topical discourse.  So even when Stewart is off, there is a message of some sort, which gives listening a purpose.  The movie stars on Stewart are a drag.  

[ Parent ]
Yes, can the Hollywood stuff (4.00 / 1)
TDS is a political show, don't try to compete with Letterman/Leno/etc anymore.  
[ Parent ]
Exactly! Liberals hate rethuglican spin, even when it's fake. (4.00 / 1)
Imho that's the simple point behind that "surprising" poll (I'm not surprised). After all those years of right wing spin dominating the media, liberals can't stand it any more. Even a parody isn't really funny to them anymore. At least that's how I feel, and I guess I'm not totally alone in this. Cobert is intentionally absurd, while the rightwing nuts don't even notice that their arguments are crazy, but I'm simply tired of this shit.

Ok, maybe this is just a fringe view. I don't even like Borat - reminds me too much of real people I know...  

[ Parent ]
well (0.00 / 0)
From the numbers above, Colbert's audience is still much more liberal than the general public, just less so than Stewart's.  But I take your point.  Personally, I like Colbert's show more, except for his interviews because he dominates too much, and he often has very interesting guests with cool books, and I just want him to shut up and let them tell their cool story.  But the first 2/3 of the show is usually awesome.
[ Parent ]
Another small sample (4.00 / 4)
My wife and I-both left of liberal-vastly prefer Colbert to Stewart for one reason: the quality of the writing. Many nights, we skip Stewart and wait for Colbert, in fact, as we noticed that after the writers' strike, the Daily Show stopped being funny. Sometimes, it's painful for us to watch as the humor has been reduced to Stewart himself (funny faces, self-deprecating jokes, playing the straight man to unfunny correspondents (forgive me, but almost without exception, they now consistently bomb)). The Colbert Report, by contrast, is (almost) always funny, and the writers come up with new segments and bits each week. More importantly, the creative concept behind the Report is more innovative than Stewart, and because Colbert never breaks frame, the show operates on a much more nuanced and sophisticated level. I realize that the Report revolves even more around its anchor, but I  think Colbert simply has a funnier and sharper mind, something that comes out when he's ad-libbing with guests. I agree, however, that he sometimes overwhelms them, and given his persona, I wonder if he could pull off an interview like Stewart's with Cramer. In short: Colbert is much funnier, but Stewart can produce much more hard-hitting interviews: he can be a real bulldog, as he was with Cramer. My wife's big complaint against each: both rarely interview women.

Cramer Beat down aside (0.00 / 0)
Well, the Cramer beat-down aside, I actually think that Colbert is a MUCH better interviewer. He has just eviscerated some folks, and they don't even see it coming. Unfortunately I can't think of one off the top of my head, but I stand by that I believe Colbert does a WAY better interview overall.

I am a mid 30's Arch Liberal - I scored 374 on that quiz that Chris put up the other day, but I find Colbert to be way less funny. I think as others have mentioned, I know its satire, but I am so sick and freaking tired of those right wing nutcases that it hits a little close to home for me.  

[ Parent ]
How about it's a small sample size (4.00 / 2)
and if you did this survey again you'd be just as likely to see the totals reversed.  
Overall (4.00 / 4)
I really like Stewart except when he "engages in equivalence fallacies", as you so perfectly put it. So I'm really glad you mentioned that here, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one bothered by it.

I love Colbert's show too, and I'm glad I don't have to choose between them. Mostly I'm glad those two shows are on the air period, and that people are watching. Whether viewers are ideologically aligned with the hosts or not, usually they are getting far better information than the mainstream corporate news delivers.


yes (4.00 / 1)
The flaws of each balance out pretty well so they usually cover most everything a liberal could wish for.  I like Colbert more, but that doesn't mean I dislike Stewart or don't enjoy what he does.
[ Parent ]
i don't believe (0.00 / 0)
most people know what a liberal is, literally some seem to think that not burning a cross on someones lawn qualifies to be considered liberal. many want the label but can't walk the walk that is necessary.
Bingo (4.00 / 1)
"Not really sure why liberals drop off from Stewart to Colbert.  Maybe we don't tend to like Colbert's shtick, even knowing it is a satire it can be a bit much..."

This is how I feel. Even though I know he is joking, sometimes what he says is too close to what conservatives really feel, and its infuriating.  

Stewart is much more liberal. (0.00 / 0)
The big difference is that while Colbert specifically makes fun of the right wing, the right wing is pretty stupid and deserves all of it.  Stewart makes fun of the news and stupid things in it, from a liberal point of view -- well, not really.  Even though he's liberal, even though he holds some ideological positions that are clearly left-wing, his approach is for fairness and justice in general, and this came out in his recent Jim Cramer beatdown.  His problem was not so much that there are rich people that control the market but that there are rich people that control the market running CNBC and they still listen uncritically to CEO's lying to them.  Jon Stewart is anti-torture, anti-dishonesty, and anti-corruption.  These are not specifically left-wing values, but they are things liberals fight for, and it resonates with them in the audience.

Colbert, on the other hand, is much more of an anti-right-wing comedian than a serious liberal journalist (which Jon Stewart isn't, either, but sometimes it feels like he is).  His schtick is much more about himself and much less informative than Stewart's.  I wouldn't be surprised if the difference between them is in large part due to a lot of people watching only Stewart.  Stephen Colbert basically fights hard against small-c conservatism -- this includes bigotry -- while Stewart fights for small-l liberalism.

I don't agree (0.00 / 0)
The things Colbert satirizes often are only really satire if one is a very strong liberal.  He's not just mocking the insane ranting style of the right wing nuts, but their very values and beliefs.  

Yeah Colbert isn't a journalist and Stewart is stronger on that front, but the place Colbert's satire comes from strikes me as more deeply liberal than Stewart's penchant for mockery of the absurd and hypocritical.  


[ Parent ]
Satire (4.00 / 1)
I think a lot of the drop off from Stewart to Colbert has to do with format.  My mom--well educated, professional women, in her 60s, consistently votes D, but less socially liberal than her kids--hates Colbert and likes Stewart.  But she absolutely doesn't get Colbert's satire, even when I explain it to her.  "Why is that funny?"  She also didn't get All in the Family either.  And she is very right-brained (in the pseudopsychological sense).  That's true with a lot of other comedic satire too.  Maybe (older?) liberals or right-brained people don't get deep satire. (Please note--previous sentence was pure speculation and extrapolation from my interpretation of my mom.)
It may be... (4.00 / 3)
...that older (?) liberals are more resistant to spin. It's hard for me to be specific with respect to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert because I only see random clips of both shows--I don't have cable. However, it seems to that Colbert's show could only work in a world where issues and positions are advanced by marketing-based "let's-see-what-sticks" strategies, while Stewart doesn't necessarily do the "wink-wink" at his audience; his show pokes fun at foibles and absurdities whereas Colbert's persona seems just plain absurd (get it?), though his skill at it is what holds your attention. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it kinda feels like the difference between the comedy of, say, Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman.  

"This ain't for the underground. This here is for the sun." -Saul Williams
[ Parent ]
Andy Kaufman (0.00 / 0)
Good point.  And the subtle dating technique is very effective.
[ Parent ]
Demographic Divergence Between Colbert, Stewart | 32 comments
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