we all know that how we watch content
has changed dramatically over the last
decade and TV networks know this too but
nobody is hit on a formula for exactly
how to present TV content to a
millennial audience where viewers are
using a wide variety of platforms today
we're gonna look at Comedy Central and
see how they've been trying to target
Millennials in a big way by balancing TV
and the growing power of social Lea the
reality is comedy is one of the only
genres that allows this kind of
flexibility other than the news dramas
romance science fiction it's difficult
to present any of these in small pieces
because the plots are too complex or the
mood and tone will be disrupted if you
cut them up too small and although
comedy can easily have an overarching
storyline it's also easy to pull out
certain parts and present them without
context to a new audience for Comedy
Central the most obvious place to start
is the Daily Show I'm sorry sir are you
are you lost no it can't wait it's me
Trevor and may Papa
me done
as soon as John Stewart retired the
network knew that a like-for-like
replacement was unlikely to work
especially as Stephen Colbert and John
Oliver were tied into their own new
shows since they were the only two who
had proven they could fill the part the
relaunch with Trevor Noah wasn't just a
new presenter there was a clear push for
a younger audience and for more
engagement on social media it's likely
they saw how well people reacted to John
Oliver's last week tonight on YouTube
which was wrapping up its second season
by the time Trevor Noah debuted his host
in September 2015 and quickly there was
content that was unique to YouTube just
like with last week tonight Noah
recorded a number of altro shots asking
people to subscribe hey there thanks for
watching if you like that video click
below to subscribe or click here to
delete the Internet
yes you found the button please be
careful delete the entire Internet right
here in the first year of Trevor Noah's
run there was a lot of noise about how
he had lost a lot of Stuart's readings
but the focus was always on a young
audience for John Stuart the average
audience was around 50 years old but
advertisers want Millennials and that's
what Noah gave them he's overtaking The
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as
the top late-night talk show among
Millennials under 25 and The Daily Show
is V top late-night talk show with men
under 35 in 2017 the daily show audience
grew 6% in the 18 to 49 category leading
to Noah getting a new contract however
Comedy Central's primetime ratings are
down 6% overall so it's no surprise
they're making sure they keep Noah on
board following Jon Stewart is an
impossible task he was he was the host
of that show for a very long time one of
the most beloved and respected people in
media entertainment but Comedy Central
State
you know stayed committed always said be
patient see what happened and since then
he's been going very strong ratings are
up pretty much every month this year but
where Trevor Noah has been particularly
strong for Comedy Central is he's really
popular among young viewers 18 to 34 18
to 49 Comedy Central's parent Viacom
also doesn't see a big future for them
on the major streaming services in 2017
their agreement with Hulu was left to
expire and although they've struck
ongoing exclusive agreements for a
handful of show
like broad cities South Park and key &
peele most Comedy Central content is now
gone from the platform
Viacom CEO Bob Backus said that video
on-demand is not going to be a
significant part of their affiliate
revenue going forward Comedy Central's
other format experiments have also
failed the critical hit review used
clever structuring which meant that
could be presented either as a regular
30 minute show on television or it can
easily be cut up and presented as Clips
online key & peele did the same thing it
was gold on social media because you can
just jump right into the sketches they
got 195 million views on YouTube as well
as 50 million on Facebook but only two
million from TV but despite being well
reviewed review only lasted two seasons
another attempt to diversify came with
their own channel on snapchat discover
Comedy Central was one of the first
eleven media companies to sign up for
the launch and that number has since
grown to over 70 but despite being one
of the most popular partners second only
to BuzzFeed Comedy Central pulled the
plug although they may continue to make
new shows specifically designed for the
platform like quickie and Nicki and
animation the lounge it's rumored that
the extra work of conveying their bigger
properties like Daily Show and key &
peele was proving unpopular within the
company at the end of the day that's the
real problem Comedy Central is facing do
you make a show to fit each different
platform or do you try to adapt what you
have into all these different forms no
one really knows the answer yet
least of all Comedy Central want to
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