Can Mondays do for the TV enterprise what Thursdays and Sundays as soon as did? A number of the medium’s best-known personalities are attempting to determine this query out.
When Jon Stewart re-emerges Monday evening as a one-night-a-week host of Comedy Central’s “The Day by day Present,” he’ll be part of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki in making bespoke Monday appearances for his or her community, a part of what has develop into a low-key scheduling experiment that truly has excessive stakes: In a medium greatest identified for providing viewers the identical hosts in the identical time slots 5 nights every week, can TV networks that thrive on news-and-talk packages generate new consideration and promoting {dollars} by doling them out much less steadily ?
“Monday is absolutely interesting,” says Stephanie Morales, vp of media intelligence at Magna, the Interpublic Group media-research agency. It tends to be the second-most-watched day of the week on linear TV, behind Sundays, she says. And viewers of speak and information packages have a tendency to come back in with headier expectations, she provides, as a result of they anticipate the host tacking a stack of occasions that passed off over the weekend. Mondays is usually a excellent place to have a high newsmaker or superstar visitor, says Morales, due to the extra intense viewership.
MSNBC and Comedy Central declined to make executives accessible for remark.
Their job is a troublesome one. By making a Monday-only expertise slot, each networks have created what are primarily three completely different packages they have to promote, market and ebook. Stewart will cede “Day by day Present” broadcasts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to this system’s present group of correspondents. Maddow and Psaki make occasional appearances outdoors of their packages, usually when a giant headline rises within the present election cycle and MSNBC gives a special form of evaluation programming in primetime that makes use of a number of contributors.
Ensuring a single day counts for extra appears important to Comedy Central, which lured Stewart again to internet hosting “The Day by day Present” as soon as every week for the 2024 election cycle. Previous to the information of his return, the Paramount International community had been testing numerous visitor hosts and the present’s personal correspondent crew — seemingly with out a lot success. Roy Wooden Jr., seen as a possible successor to the present’s most up-to-date full-time host, Trevor Noah, opted to depart when Comedy Central wouldn’t provide stable particulars about its plans for the collection. What’s extra, the late-night present went darkish throughout the latest Hollywood labor strikes, whereas rivals stored repeats on the air.
The shortage of authentic episodes might have taken a toll. Advertisers trimmed their help of “Day by day” in 2023, in accordance with Vivvix, a tracker of advert outlays. “Day by day Present” generated almost $20.2 million in advert gross sales within the first 10 months of 2023, in contrast with $39.9 million in 2022. In 2014, Stewart’s final full 12 months as host, the present took in $129.1 million — a determine it has not matched since.
Executives at Comedy Central see Mondays as the largest viewing day of the week for youthful audiences — particularly males between 18 and 49. Additionally they see Stewart utilizing the day to recap occasions from the weekend and former week and for setting an agenda for the week to come back.
“Jon Stewart has the persona to herald new distinctive households,” Janice Prewett, group director of media technique at unbiased Dallas company TRG. “There’s extra alternative for continued rankings and distinctive family progress as individuals are uncovered to short-form movies of Jon on the Web, which may pull them towards tuning in to the present.”
However will his presence deliver extra viewers to the remainder of the week, when the present’s correspondents will take the lead? Stewart and his WME agent, James Dixon, will function government producers of this system and can have a say on each content material and expertise. Whether or not they can develop this system for the long run, or are merely going to maintain it moving into an election 12 months, stays to be seen.
There are some indicators {that a} Monday technique can repay — a bit. In 2023, advertisers elevated their spending on MSNBC’s Monday broadcast of “The Rachel Maddow Present,” in accordance with knowledge from ad-tracking firm iSpot. This system’s Monday broadcast generated $4.9 million in promoting final 12 months, am 11.6% enhance over the $4.4 million in advert {dollars} spent in 2022, when Maddow introduced that she would do Mondays solely beginning in Could of that 12 months.
In the meantime, MSNBC has additionally seen new advert {dollars} dedicated to its Monday 8 p.m. slot, in accordance with iSpot. The Monday hour anchored by Chris Hayes in 2022 snared roughly $4.6 million, in 2022, a determine that jumped 21% in 2023 to $5.6 million for an hour that has been anchored by Psaki since late September (Psaki additionally anchors a present middays on Sunday).
The transfer seems to have introduced new viewers to the community’s 8 p.m. slot. In January, “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Monday nights notched a 20% achieve amongst viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers, together with a 7% enhance in general viewers. To make certain, such spikes could be anticipated given {that a} rotating array of hosts had been anchoring the hour rather than Hayes, who has gained time to commit to different initiatives for the corporate.
But there’s little indication the transfer has helped MSNBC’s rankings throughout the remainder of the week. The general audiences generated by Maddow and Psaki on Mondays will not be duplicated on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
“We don’t anticipate the particular host change to lead to higher viewership. Nevertheless, we anticipate a doubtlessly small rankings enhance because the political season ramps up,” says Prewett. The chance for MSNBC, she provides, is available in ”aligning with audiences that Jen and Rachel resonate with most,” however “as soon as the viewers settles into the change, there’ll probably not be an enormous alternative for distinctive family beneficial properties.”
A case of the Mondays could also be a troublesome one to unravel.