Study suggests Jon Stewart's Daily Show departure helped elect Donald Trump

Big Think

A new study titled “Did Jon Stewart Elect Donald Trump? Evidence From Television Ratings Data" by researchers from George Washington University and Ohio State University points to evidence that many Americans consume news from comedy sources, and that the former Daily Show host's absence may have played a role in affecting voter turnout. Stewart signed off from The Daily Show in August 2015, less than two months after Trump announced his candidacy. The study suggests that Stewart's key influence was in driving voters to the polls, rather than convincing them who to vote for. The study points to The Daily Show's ratings drop after Trevor Noah took over. "By our estimate, the ratings decline at The Daily Show was associated with a 1.11 percentage point increase in Republican presidential vote share at the county level, significant by conventional standards," the researchers wrote. The study also examined the effect of Stephen Colbert's departure from The Colbert Report in 2014, but it didn't find the same level of impact.