For Daily Show Prep, Cramer Consults Martha

(NEWSER) - Jim Cramer took his lumps tonight from Jon Stewart in their highly anticipated Daily Show faceoff. "I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a game," Stewart told Cramer, adding an expletive. "I can't reconcile the brilliance and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market with the crazy I see you do every night," he said. Cramer disagreed on points but acknowledged that he's "fair game," the AP reports. More»

Stewart-Colbert-O'Brien lineup would be a win-win-win situation

(NEWSER) - Conan O'Brien is about to go back on the market—but the late night talk show market is full. "ABC has already said it's not interested in hiring him," writes Patrick Goldstein. "HBO isn't prepared to get into the late-night talk show racket. And Fox has a lot of issues to overcome, starting with a huge lack of enthusiasm from its affiliates." His logical destination: Comedy Central. More»

Last week's figures suggest Daily Show skewering turning viewers off CNBC

(NEWSER) - Early signs suggest that Jon Stewart may have put a ding in CNBC's ratings, Portfolio reports. Viewership of CNBC's Business Day programming block was down 11% for the first 3 days after Stewart's assault on the network began, although Jim Cramer’s Mad Money pulled somewhat healthier figures outside the 25-54 demographic—suggesting some college-age Stewart fans tuned in to see what all the fuss was about. More»

(NEWSER) - Who won last night’s cable grudge match between Jon Stewart and CNBC’s Jim Cramer? Let’s go to the scorecards:

• Stewart was the clear winner, clobbering his guest with “homespun, regular-guy relentlessness,” Maureen Ryan writes in the Chicago Tribune. “Cramer didn’t know what hit him.”
• The weird part was that Cramer barely defended himself from “Crossfire Jon,” Howard Kurtz says in the Washington Post. “Cramer was playing rope-a-dope while Stewart swung away. It was a mismatch.”

Clip gets 1.5M views; week's site traffic surges

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart’s attacks on CNBC host Jim Cramer have been ratings gold for the late-night satirist, Variety reports. An 8-minute rant has garnered 1.5 million views, Comedy Central says, and plenty of press attention. Unique usage for the Daily Show site has soared 65% this week amid a series of attacks that began after CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli canceled an appearance on the show. More»