UPDATE: John Oliver’s Farewell As ‘Daily Show’ Host Draws Lower Ratings: VIDEO

UPDATE, 2:11 PM: On his last night as interim host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, the guy TV critics have crowned Jon Stewart’s “heir apparent” and “just as effective … at 1/10th the cost” enjoyed -– his smallest audience of the week. Nielsen reports an average of 1.22 million viewers tuned in to John Oliver’s swan-song, compared with 1.34 million the previous night and 1.4 million the night before that. It was the same story among 18-to-34-year-olds, who are more to Comedy Central’s taste. Oliver’s final show clocked 302,000 in the demo, versus 436,000 the previous night. One week earlier, Oliver clocked his biggest audience of the week on Thursday night — 1.5 million viewers and 501,000 in the age bracket.

PREVIOUSLY: On his final night in the faux-anchor chair, man who made it OK for Stewart to take off three months to direct a movie looked back at his time filling in during what was supposed to have been the slow days of summer but instead included Paula Deen, the Royal Baby, sexual harassment allegations against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, Russia’s anti-gay law and interviewing Aaron Sorkin in the dark. Oliver took a moment to give special thanks to New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner — or, as Oliver called him, “Carlos Danger, the real fun of the summer.”

Here’s last night’s opening: