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Regardless of where you stood on the "love-tolerate-hate-Jon Stewart-Oscar-hosting-assessment-continuum," the numbers don't lie: 100,000 additional viewers not-hated his performance enough to tune into The Daily Show in the days following the telecast for an extra helping of his pointed political satire and overcooked double takes:

Viewership for "The Daily Show" averaged 1.6 million for the six episodes after Stewart's Oscar gig. The show had been averaging 1.5 million viewers each night before the Academy Awards, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"He's sort of elevated," said Doug Herzog, Comedy Central president, "and by association we are as well. So we couldn't be happier." [...]

"I knew the visibility would be high," Herzog said. "The only thing that would have surprised me is if the ratings had gone down. We couldn't have been more proud that he was up there."

Studies have shown that a majority of parents, regardless of what they say, do tend to favor one child over the others. It's an apt analogy when you consider Herzog's cooing and fawning over Stewart, who with one neutered performance and a modest gain in viewership ascends to untouchable Comedy Central Golden Boy status, while Trey Parker and Matt Stone suffer the indignities of scheduling runarounds and doublespeak you'd extend to that one problem kid who just can't seem to learn to play by the corporate-synergistic rules.