ST. PAUL, Minn. -- On a cool, damp Thursday afternoon, dozens of people were lined up outside the History Theatre in St. Paul, hoping to get in as a stand-by to see Jon Stewart tape Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," one of the most popular "news" programs on television.

Or is it a comedy show?

It depends on whom you ask.

"I look at it as a news show that tells you they will spin up front," said Mike Connell, a college student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, who volunteered at various events around St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. "And he rips equally on both parties. I think it's hilarious."

This is the third presidential election in which Stewart has been at the helm of "The Daily Show," which has helped the 45-year-old host become one of the most respected journalists on television, according to a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey.

Among those under age 30, the Pew survey found, 6 percent said Stewart is their favorite journalist, tying him with Fox's Bill O'Reilly at the top of the age group. He ranked in a five-way tie for fourth overall, alongside Anderson Cooper, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams.

"That surprises me," said Jessica Horwitz, who was waiting in line trying to get one of the potential open seats to Stewart's Sept. 4 show. "He kind of makes fun of their jobs, but I think we need that because there's so much serious stuff out there. It makes it easier to handle."

A Pew Center survey of the show in 2007 found that U.S. foreign affairs was covered the most, followed by politics -- same as the mainstream press. Some significant news events last year were largely ignored, the Pew survey said, like the Virginia Tech shootings and the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

"We feel no obligation to follow the news cycle, because we're not journalists," said Stewart on PBS' "Bill Moyers' Journal" last year.

One Stewart fan, 23-year-old Nathan Kasper, disagrees.

"I see him as a journalist first and a comedian second," Kasper said. "When he's reporting the news, he's still reporting. He's just making it funny."

However, the Pew Center study found that Stewart may be going for more than a laugh.

"In its choice of topics, its use of news footage to deconstruct the manipulations by public figures and its tendency toward pointed satire over playing just for laughs, "'The Daily Show' performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature -- getting people to think critically about the public square," the Pew report said.

How popular is "The Daily Show"? According to a survey by the Pew Center in April 2007, 16 percent of Americans said they regularly watched "The Daily Show" or the "The Colbert Report," hosted by one-time "Daily Show" correspondent Stephen Colbert. Those numbers are comparable to some major news programs: 17 percent said they regularly watched Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," and 14 percent watched PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" regularly.

"The Daily Show," which launched in 1996, now has an average audience of about 1.8 million, according to Comedy Central in April 2008. Fox News' prime time show "Hannity & Colmes" had an average audience of 1.9 million in the first quarter of 2008, and CNN's highest rated show, "Election Center," averaged of 1.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

With those numbers, Kasper believes that Stewart will have an impact on how the election shakes out.

"[Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi referenced Jon Stewart and 'The Daily Show' on the floor of the House," Kasper said. "A lot of people watch the program. I think he could have a substantial influence. I think he will have a lot more influence than people realize."

The Pew survey also suggests that viewers of the show are highly informed, an indication that "The Daily Show" is not their lone source of news.

"'The Daily Show' not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke," the Pew Center report said.

Jane Freeberg, waiting in line to see Stewart with her family, isn't a regular watcher but has seen enough of Stewart to view him as a comic.

"I think he's a comedian, and yet, his views are interesting to me," Freeberg said. "It's a good way to make the serious stuff lighter to handle."