Could Jon Stewart Return as Host of ‘The Daily Show’?
As the search for a new permanent host of Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show continues, many fans are hoping that the show’s former long-time host, Jon Stewart, could return to the desk. And what could be more perfect than him fronting it during election year as the race for the White House heats up?
The speculation comes after show bosses said a decision on a permanent host won’t be made until 2024, which, to many, shows hesitancy in picking a new face.
Since Trevor Noah left in December 2022, The Daily Show has welcomed a string of guest hosts, including the likes of Wanda Sykes, Chelsea Handler, Hasan Minhaj, Marlon Wayans, Sarah Silverman, and Leslie Jones.
Some of those guest hosts, including Silverman and Jones, will return for the new season, which premiered on Monday, October 16. Comedian Michael Kosta is hosting this week’s episodes. Other upcoming guest hosts include Desus Nice, Charlamagne tha God, Michelle Wolf, and The Daily Show News Team regulars Dulcé Sloan and Ronny Chieng.
So what are the possibilities that Stewart could be tempted back? Well, the comedian has spoken openly about his love for the show, which he hosted for 16 years. And he’s been open about the void left behind since walking away in 2015.
“When you lose that structure, you’re untethered from the thing that prevents the bad mind from doing its corrupt best,” he said on the Strike Force Five podcast last month. “So I knew I had to fill it with some other things, and I picked music, something I’d always wanted to do.”
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“The circadian rhythm of your life becomes the production schedule of your talk show,” Stewart explained. “It’s that structured. You know, none of us got into this business to be proper businessmen who get up at 8 and take the subway and go to the thing, but that’s what having a talk show is.”
He continued, “And so I knew if I didn’t replace that structured day with something I have the type of brain that would slowly… it turns from like, ‘That was a great run,’ to, ‘You failed everyone who ever loved you,’ like pretty fast. It goes South and dark really fast.”
Since leaving The Daily Show, Stewart has kept a relatively low public profile but returned to current affairs television in 2021 with his Apple TV+ series The Problem with Jon Stewart. The show last aired on April 7, 2023.
His Apple TV+ program shows that Stewart still has a desire to discuss the news, which makes a return to The Daily Show not out of the realm of possibility. And Stewart fits the mold of the type of host the show would want heading into a big election year, which could prove to be a ratings success.
Jeff Maurer, a former senior writer on HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, explained to The Washington Post that the ideal host for The Daily Show would need to be “charismatic and funny” but “have enough gravitas and enough knowledge of what’s going on in the world that you want to know about their opinion.
“The right comic for that show is a really unique blend of skills sets,” Maurer added. “Somebody can be great at one thing or even five things and still not be quite right for that particular show.”
Reading Maurer’s quotes, it certainly sounds like a fitting description for Stewart, who was lauded by fans for his ability to blend humor with knowledge during his long tenure on The Daily Show.
As host, Stewart was a big ratings winner for Comedy Central, something that dwindled in more recent years. When Noah took over The Daily Show in September 2015, his first year averaged 1.1 million, in line with Stewart’s era. But ratings fell in subsequent years, and by August of 2022, the show averaged just 383,000 viewers, a 65% drop from its 2015 ratings.
In showing how relevant Stewart’s era of The Daily Show was and continues to be, a clip from 2014 went viral this past week, in which Stewart talks about the difficulties of critiquing government policies when it comes to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
If you’d like to see how absolutely nothing has changed in the conversation around Israel & Palestine despite decades of violence, here’s Jon Stewart doing a bit that could literally air today without a single change. pic.twitter.com/D0yrtaAsac
— Cooper (@Cooperstreaming) October 11, 2023
Many fans certainly want to see Stewart back on the show.
“I miss The Daily Show era Jon Stewart,” wrote one viewer on Twitter/X.
“Bring back Jon Stewart. I stopped watching after he left,” said another commenter.
“It may be a generational thing but Jon Stewart has the delivery that, to me, transforms funny into hilarity. He’s not just smart, he’s wickedly intelligent. His timing is genius and his syntax complex,” said another fan. “The show runners have a tough job finding another Stewart replacement. I wish them well.”
“I really miss Jon Stewart’s Daily Show!,” wrote another.
“The Daily Show was my only source of news for years because I felt like Jon Stewart was the only person that could tell the truth and could also throw a little humor in to lighten the blow,” another added.
The Daily Show, Weeknights, 11/10c, Comedy Central
