COMEDY CENTRAL FINISHES 2019 AS #1 FULL DAY ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK WITH M18-34

The #1 Brand in Comedy Increases Year-Over-Year P18-49 Ratings for First Time since 2013

P18-49 Ratings Jump +6% During Recently Wrapped Quarter

Comedy Central Records Best Year Ever with 7.5 Billion Digital and Social Video Views and 16 Billion Watch Minutes

NEW YORK, NY, January 6, 2020 - Comedy Central finished 2019 as the #1 full day entertainment cable network with M18-34 (.24 rating), driven by strong-performing originals, including South Park, cable's #1 primetime comedy for the 7th year in a row. Among the key P18-49 demo, the #1 brand increased year-over-year ratings for the first time since 2013 (.18 rating in 2018 to a .19 rating in 2019).

Comedy Central capped 2019 with an outstanding quarter, averaging a .19 P18-49 rating, up +6% versus a year ago. This was Comedy Central's largest year-over-year ratings growth among P18-49 since 2013 and the brand was one of only four top 20 networks to post year-over-year ratings growth in the quarter. With a share of 1.18, it was the highest share for Comedy Central in a calendar Q4 since 2014, and represented a +13% increase since the same quarter last year. The brand earned 11 straight quarters of year-over-year share growth, the longest streak in Comedy Central history. That matches the longest streak among top 30 networks on all of cable TV.

Comedy Central featured top-rated and critically acclaimed original programming throughout the year:

South Park is cable's #1 primetime comedy for the 7th year in a row. South Park also ranked as cable's top-rated series with M18-34 on Wednesday nights, delivering a strong 1.9 L+3 rating throughout season 23. The series averaged 1.4 million total viewers for the recently wrapped 10-episode season. South Park continues to serve as a top franchise across all of TV. Including new episode premieres and repeats, there were over 30 billion minutes of South Park consumed on linear in 2019, up +36% from 2018 (L+7 viewing).

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah finished the year as the #1 daily late night talk show on TV with M18-34 (L+7 viewing).

Tosh.0 capped off a decade of dominance as the #1 cable comedy on Tuesdays with M18-34 for 10 consecutive years.

South Side is the #1 new cable comedy with African American viewers 18-49. It is 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Other Two reached nearly 12 million viewers on linear during its first season. The series is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Comedy Central Stand-Up holds the top five rated stand-up specials of 2019.

Comedy Central recorded massive social and digital growth for the calendar year, with its best year ever for both views (7.5 billion video views, +41% year over year) and watch time (16 billion watch minutes, +66% year over year). Highlights from individual series are included below:

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is the #1 most-engaging late night franchise on social media. The series recorded its best year ever for social streams with 3 billion, up +27% from the previous year. The Daily Show also gained more than 4.3 million new social followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The show generated over 100 million engagements in 2019, a +60% increase year-over-year.

South Park boasts over 48 million fans across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, making it the most-popular cable comedy series on each platform. On digital and social platforms, South Park drove 113 million views throughout season 23, up +53% from season 22.

In 2019, Drunk History drove 105 million views across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, demonstrating +201% year-over-year growth. Performance was particularly strong on YouTube, growing +522% from the prior year.

The Comedy Central Stand-Up YouTube channel amassed more than 1.4 billion watch minutes and close to 900,000 subscribers in its first year.

The "Brooklyn Ball Barber" episode of the Comedy Central original digital series Mini-Mocks was the second most-watched video in 2019 from the TV Universe on social platforms, with 244 million streams on Facebook. This was also the most watched video across Viacom in 2019.

About Comedy Central

Comedy Central gives audiences access to a world of super funny, personally relatable, culturally relevant, and provocative comedy that tells the funny truths of life, every day and everywhere. From award-winning late-night, scripted and animated series to stand-up specials, short-form and sketch, Comedy Central has it all. A subsidiary of ViacomCBS, Comedy Central is available to more than 300 million households in over 150 countries across the globe.