TV Networks Experiment with Monday-Only Talent Slots to Boost Viewership and Ad Revenue
Can Mondays do for the TV business what Thursdays and Sundays once did? Some of the medium’s best-known personalities are trying to figure this question out.
When Jon Stewart re-emerges Monday night as a one-night-a-week host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” he will join MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki in making bespoke Monday appearances for their network, part of what has become a low-key scheduling experiment that actually has high stakes: In a medium best known for offering viewers the same hosts in the same time slots five nights a week, can TV networks that thrive on news-and-talk programs generate new attention and advertising dollars by doling them out less frequently?
Monday is an Appealing Day
“Monday is really appealing,” says Stephanie Morales, vice president of media intelligence at Magna, the Interpublic Group media-research firm. It tends to be the second-most-watched day of the week on linear TV, behind Sundays, she says. And viewers of talk and news programs tend to come in with headier expectations, she adds, because they anticipate the host tackling a stack of events that took place over the weekend. Mondays can be a great place to have a top newsmaker or celebrity guest, says Morales, because of the more intense viewership.
Creating Three Different Programs
Their task is a difficult one. By creating a Monday-only talent slot, both networks have created what are essentially three different programs they must promote, market, and book. Stewart will cede “Daily Show” broadcasts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to the program’s current group of correspondents. Maddow and Psaki make occasional appearances outside of their programs, typically when a big headline rises in the current election cycle and MSNBC offers a different sort of analysis programming in primetime that makes use of multiple contributors.
The Importance of Mondays for Comedy Central
Making sure a single day counts for more seems critical to Comedy Central, which lured Stewart back to hosting “The Daily Show” once a week for the 2024 election cycle. Prior to the news of his return, the Paramount Global network had been testing various guest hosts and the show’s own correspondent team — seemingly without much success. The lack of original episodes may have taken a toll. Advertisers trimmed their support of “Daily” in 2023, according to Vivvix, a tracker of ad outlays. “Daily Show” generated nearly $20.2 million in ad sales in the first 10 months of 2023, compared with $39.9 million in 2022. In 2014, Stewart’s last full year as host, the show took in $129.1 million — a figure it has not matched since.
The Potential of Jon Stewart
Executives at Comedy Central see Mondays as the biggest viewing day of the week for younger audiences — especially men between 18 and 49. They also see Stewart using the day to recap events from the weekend and previous week and for setting an agenda for the week to come.
“Jon Stewart has the personality to bring in new unique households,” says Janice Prewett, group director of media strategy at independent Dallas agency TRG. “There is more opportunity for continued ratings and unique household growth as people are exposed to short-form videos of Jon on the Internet, which could pull them toward tuning in to the show.”
The Impact on MSNBC
There are some signs that a Monday strategy can pay off — a little. In 2023, advertisers increased their spending on MSNBC’s Monday broadcast of “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The program’s Monday broadcast generated $4.9 million in advertising last year, an 11.6% increase over the $4.4 million in ad dollars spent in 2022 when Maddow announced that she would do Mondays only starting in May of that year.
Meanwhile, MSNBC has also seen new ad dollars committed to its Monday 8 p.m. slot. The Monday hour anchored by Chris Hayes in 2022 snared approximately $4.6 million, a figure that jumped 21% in 2023 to $5.6 million for an hour that has been anchored by Psaki since late September.
The move appears to have brought new viewers to the network’s 8 p.m. slot. In January, “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Monday nights notched a 20% gain among viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers, along with a 7% increase in overall viewers.
The Challenge of Maintaining Viewership
Yet there’s little indication the move has helped MSNBC’s ratings across the rest of the week. The overall audiences generated by Maddow and Psaki on Mondays are not duplicated on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
“We do not anticipate the specific host change to result in greater viewers