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Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are not the problem at Viacom

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Are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert turning Comedy Central into the AARP cable channel?

That’s what Forbes magazine thinks. In ‘The Graying of Comedy Central,’ Dorothy Pomerantz writes that the audience for Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ and Colbert’s ‘Colbert Report’ is getting older, and this means ‘trouble’ for Comedy Central’s parent, Viacom.

That’s right, folks. Having two hugely popular shows is apparently a problem for Viacom. The hook of the story is that in May the median age for Stewart’s show was (gasp) 41.4 while Colbert’s was 38.3. Better start cutting the Social Security checks for that audience.

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Never mind that overall the audience for both shows is up. Never mind that, while it is true that there was a dip in May of the number of adults ages 18 to 34 watching the programs and growth in viewers over 35, that also means the median income per viewer for both shows is on the rise. As much as advertisers like young viewers, they like viewers with money more. Finally, comparisons to last May, when we were amid a presidential race that attracted more young voters than ever before, to this May is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. Oh, and those median ages are way younger than what Letterman and Leno and even Conan are doing.

There is an obsession with young viewers, and we get it. The theory is that it is easier to get someone who’s 18 to change toothpaste than it is for someone who’s 48. Of course, I’ve been using Crest since I was a kid, so go figure.

But not every show needs to draw a bunch of 25-year-old kids living in group houses to be considered a success. The idea that it is a negative that the ‘Daily Show’ and ‘Colbert’ attract an audience of smart people in their late 30s and early 40s is laughable, especially from a magazine whose median age is a lot older and whose sales pitch to advertisers is that they have an intelligent and educated audience. (Disclaimer: My father writes for Forbes and, oh, he’s about to turn 78, so I guess people won’t read him anymore.)

Look, there’s plenty to pick on at Viacom. MTV has been foundering creatively for years. Nickelodeon is facing intense competition from Disney. VH1 is in an identity crisis. But Comedy Central? It’s pretty much the one cable network that’s firing on most of its cylinders there. By the way, in June, Stewart’s median age went down to 40 while Colbert’s fell to 37.

— Joe Flint

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