After months of anticipation and worry, Daily Show fans were introduced to Trevor Noah Monday night with a similar format, new perspective and a few new faces.

Monday’s debut was simulcast on 12 channels in the Viacom family, earning 3.5 million viewers across all of the networks, with Comedy Central naturally leading the way with 1.1 million.

The show’s relaunch also did well with other Viacom channels Nick at Nite, VH1, TV Land, BET, Spike, MTV, even MTV2.

The 3.5 million is actually very close to the ratings the network got with Jon Stewart’s last episode, which hit around 3.47 million viewers on Aug. 6. Expect these numbers to go up in the next few days, however, with delayed viewing numbers to most likely come strolling in.

The pressure was on, but Noah hit the right spot for fans between the show’s familiar format and his new brand of humor that sways a bit from Stewart’s.

The show open (below), created by LA-based agency Troika, was revamped with an updated look and new logo for the new host. Even the show’s ending, the Moment of Zen, stuck around for this new version of the show, signaling to viewers that this would be the same Daily Show, just with a new comedian at the forefront.

Noah began his debut by directly addressing his new role and the magnitude of taking over for Stewart, describing him “our voice, our refuge, in many ways our political dad.”

“And now, dad has left.”

He even addressed why a woman wasn’t hosting the show, a criticism Comedy Central was faced with all summer long. The network did ask women to host, he said, but they all “turned the job down because they all had better things to do and clearly knew something I didn’t.”

But Noah vowed to keep up the “war on bullsh*t” that Stewart began, starting off his first news segment with news of the Pope and John Boehner’s resignation. Noah and correspondent Jordan Klepper paralleled this John’s leaving with another Jon, giving Daily Show fans a segment and type of self-deprecating humor they were familiar with.

Next, Noah introduced new correspondent Roy Wood Jr., one of three new correspondents added to the lineup with the new host also including Ronny Chieng and Desi Lydic.

The Daily Show format stayed similar to that of Stewart’s years, with the main story followed by correspondents “on site” to report further, ending with Kevin Hart as Noah’s first guest. The rest of the week will see Bumble CEO/Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Ryan Adams, who will perform a song from his Taylor Swift cover album.

[Image courtesy of Comedy Central]

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