Lauren Corrao, the longtime Comedy Central head of programming and development more recently responsible for ushering in "The Sarah Silverman Program," is leaving the cable channel.

In a memo sent to staffers Monday, MTV Networks Entertainment Group President Doug Herzog said he and Comedy Central President Michele Ganeless would use the next few months to find a replacement. Corrao's direct-reports are Senior Vice President Jim Sharp and newly hired Lisa Leingang, but sources said an external hire is more likely. Corrao will stay at the Viacom-owned cable network through the end of her contract, which expires in December, and will thereafter segue into producing.

Herzog credited Corrao, who has been at the network for seven years, with the rise of hits like the short-lived "Chappelle's Show," "Drawn Together" and "Reno 911!" More recently, she signed comedian Demetri Martin to his own series ("Important Things with Demetri Martin").

But lately, the network has struggled to find new hits. Among the more recent high-profile launches that didn't click are "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" and the David Alan Grier news show "Chocolate News," both of which flopped. A renewal for "Michael & Michael Have Issues" is also unlikely.

In a statement, Corrao said, "I feel that this is exactly the right time in this ever changing world of television to personally create, produce and own content. I am very much looking forward to the new and exciting challenges in the next chapter of my career."

Before joining Comedy Central, Corrao was a producing partner with Peter Tolan and helped shepherd such series as ABC's "The Job."

-- Denise Martin

Photo credit: Comedy Central

Are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert turning Comedy Central into the AARP cable channel?

That's what Forbes magazine thinks. In "The Graying of Comedy Central," Dorothy Pomerantz writes that the audience for Stewart's "Daily Show" and Colbert's "Colbert Report" is getting older, and this means "trouble" for Comedy Central's parent, Viacom.

That's right, folks. Having two hugely popular shows is apparently a problem for Viacom. The hook of the story is that in May the median age for Stewart's show was (gasp) 41.4 while Colbert's was 38.3. Better start cutting the Social Security checks for that audience.

Never mind that overall the audience for both shows is up. Never mind that, while it is true that there was a dip in May of the number of adults ages 18 to 34 watching the programs and growth in viewers over 35, that also means the median income per viewer for both shows is on the rise. As much as advertisers like young viewers, they like viewers with money more. Finally, comparisons to last May, when we were amid a presidential race that attracted more young voters than ever before, to this May is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. Oh, and those median ages are way younger than what Letterman and Leno and even Conan are doing.

There is an obsession with young viewers, and we get it. The theory is that it is easier to get someone who's 18 to change toothpaste than it is for someone who's 48. Of course, I've been using Crest since I was a kid, so go figure.

But not every show needs to draw a bunch of 25-year-old kids living in group houses to be considered a success. The idea that it is a negative that the "Daily Show" and "Colbert" attract an audience of smart people in their late 30s and early 40s is laughable, especially from a magazine whose median age is a lot older and whose sales pitch to advertisers is that they have an intelligent and educated audience. (Disclaimer: My father writes for Forbes and, oh, he's about to turn 78, so I guess people won't read him anymore.)

Look, there's plenty to pick on at Viacom. MTV has been foundering creatively for years. Nickelodeon is facing intense competition from Disney. VH1 is in an identity crisis. But Comedy Central?  It's pretty much the one cable network that's firing on most of its cylinders there. By the way, in June, Stewart's median age went down to 40 while Colbert's fell to 37.

— Joe Flint

Photo: Stephen Colbert, left, and Jon Stewart. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times