In a recent political quiz, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey, viewers of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart scored higher than viewers of the Jay Leno and David Letterman late night shows comparatively. Viewers of all three shows did score higher than people that don't watch late-night tv with the statistics stating 49% of Letterman and Leno viewers got a perfect score on the quiz but 60% of Daily Show viewers had a perfect score. Daily show viewers also seem to score higher than people that regularly read newspapers and watch news channels. 42% of people tested that regularly read newspapers scored perfectly and 40% of news channel viewers scored perfectly. This is true even when age, gender, and party affiliation are taken into account.
The whole reason I am writing this post is due to Bill O'Reilly's comments to Jon Stewart stating that Daily Show viewers are "stoned slackers" and "dopey kids". As a watcher of The Daily Show and the Factor I took some offense to that. When compared to O'Reilly's viewers 78% of Daily Show viewers are more likely to have 4 or more years of college to 24% of O'Reilly's viewers. It doesn't end there, 26% of Daily show viewers are more likely to make over $100,000 a year compared to Bill O'Reilly's 11% for his viewers. Now don't get me wrong, while I enjoy Jon Stewart's comedy show, I watch Bill O'Reilly's the factor because he makes some very logical points but I am disappointed when he makes condescending remarks in his interviews to guests. I guess the remarks made to Jon Stewart will be mailed back with a hot humble pie. Bill O'Reilly, in the words of Sean "P.Diddy" Combs, take that, take that, take that.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/28/comedy.politics/index.html