An interesting new article that you can read at Science Direct who had the research paper’s abstract:

To identify the effects of televised political comedy on the 2016 presidential election, we leverage the change in hosts of two popular shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and both shows’ subsequent ratings declines. By combining granular geographic ratings data with election results, we are able to isolate the shows’ effects on the election.

For The Daily Show, we find a strong positive effect on Jon Stewart’s departure and Trump’s vote share. By our estimate, the transition at The Daily Show spurred a 1.1% increase in Trump’s county-level vote share. Further analysis suggests that the effect may be owed more to Stewart’s effects on mobilization, not his effects on attitudes. We also find weaker evidence indicating that the end of The Colbert Report was associated with a decline in 2016 voter turnout. Our results make clear that late-night political comedy can have meaningful effects on presidential elections.

Get more on this from Science Direct.