His clip-and-rip show, Tosh.0 (Wednesdays, 10:30 ET/PT), is surging in the ratings during Season 2, averaging more than 2.6 million viewers this summer and rising most weeks.
Tosh.0, structured as the vulgar stepcousin of E!'s The Soup, has him standing in front of a green screen, lambasting Internet videos superimposed behind him. (He has a staff of researchers combing the Web all day for suitably unsuitable material.)
In fact, Tosh has become the network's most-watched host, leapfrogging The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report in total viewers and young adults. (To be fair, airing earlier in the evening gives Tosh.0 an advantage.) "Comparing me to those people is silly," says Tosh, 35. "The show's a nothing show in the big picture, but it's good for quick laughs."
Aside from Tosh's snarky comments, Tosh.0 thrives on viewer interaction. Whether it's through live tweeting during each episode, a blog updated hourly or viewer-uploaded Videos of the Week, there are many ways for fans to become part of the show. Even though most of the fan comments are at his expense, he knows it comes with the territory.
"If you're going to do a show about the Internet, you kind of have to be fearless in what you're going to say and ready to hear these people say the most horrible things about you," Tosh says. "I think that's the beauty of having this many people watching and following you. For every thousand that are completely, horribly racist and unfunny, there's a couple of people that are genuinely hysterical."
Comedy Central first gave Tosh an opportunity on the up-and-coming-comedian show Premium Blend back in 1999. After a couple of specials and a brief stint in 2008 as host of another young comedians show, Live at Gotham, he was approached by the network to develop a series.
The main goal was to create a cost-effective show that could boost the Comedy Central website. Eventually, an idea for a show centered on Internet videos surfaced. "We've loved Daniel for a long time," network president Michele Ganeless says. "We had a great marriage of a great star and great concept, and the stars aligned."
Tosh appreciates the opportunity but says it can't compete with the freedom he had as a comedian. The show is "harder, and it's not as fun. Stand-up is more fun; I get to be way more lazy. Now I have a real job where I work every single day — and kind of hard at that, which is sometimes awful."
But hard work pays off. Tosh.0's social-networking numbers have been skyrocketing, with its Facebook page nearing 1,700,000 "Likes" and Tosh's Twitter feed drawing more than 500,000 followers.
And Tosh will get to meet his fans face-to-face as Comedy Central sends him on the road for the 51-city Tosh Tour Twenty Ten, starting Sept. 24 in Tucson and ending Nov. 22 in Santa Rosa, Calif. More than 100,000 tickets have been sold in advance.
As excited as he is to get back to his stand-up roots, Tosh has no clue if he'll survive it. "I'll probably end up killing myself, but I'll give it a shot."
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