According to a 2012 Pew Research Center study, 14 percent of Stewart’s audience self-identified as conservative and 43 percent as liberal. Pew found that, overall, the news audience was 35 percent conservative and 22 percent liberal. In fact, “The Daily Show,” The New York Times and The New Yorker were the only media outlets outside of MSNBC for which a plurality of the audience self-identified as liberal.

Pew also found that just 25 percent of all news consumers had at least a college degree, but “The Daily Show” was the only television news show for which more than 40 percent of the viewers had at least a college education. Most readers of The Times and The New Yorker also had one.

About 40 percent of the audiences of all three — “The Daily Show,” The Times and The New Yorker — made more than $75,000 a year, according to Pew, compared with 26 percent of all news consumers.