Daily Show Shocker: Jon Stewart Returning as Host — Find Out When!
Jon Stewart is returning to Comedy Central‘s World News Headquarters, reclaiming his former gig as host of The Daily Show.
Stewart will host one night per week — Mondays, beginning Feb. 12 — through the presidential election in November. Daily Show correspondents will take turns hosting Tuesday through Thursday.
“Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored to have him return to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,” Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement Wednesday. “In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.”
Stewart’s shocking return comes 13 months after his successor, Trevor Noah, walked away from The Daily Show. What followed was an exhaustive search for a new host that saw nearly two-dozen familiar faces — Leslie Jones, Wanda Sykes, D.L. Hughley, Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman, Hasan Minhaj, Marlon Wayans, Kal Penn, Al Franken, John Leguizamo, Roy Wood Jr., Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Dulce Sloan, Michael Kosta, Ronny Chieng, Desus Nice, Charlamagne tha God and Michelle Wolf — try out for the gig.
Minhaj, who at one time was considered the frontrunner, found himself out of the running after a damning New Yorker exposé revealed that he had embellished elements of his standup act. (You can watch his defense here.)
Comedy Central’s search was further complicated in October by longtime correspondent Roy Wood Jr.’s decision to leave after eight years. (As Noah accepted The Daily Show‘s Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series earlier this month, Wood Jr. stood behind him and mouthed what we’ve all been thinking: “Please hire a host.”)
In addition to hosting duties, Stewart will stay on as an executive producer through 2025 and help shape the “next chapter” of the show. His Daily Show encore comes more than eight years after he left Comedy Central, and four months after the cancellation of his Apple TV+ series, The Problem With Jon Stewart, which ran for two seasons.
Shortly after the news broke, Noah weighed in on X, writing: “Yessssssss he’s back 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽”
Feast your eyes on the first photo of Stewart back behind the Daily Show desk, then hit the comments with your reactions to his return.
This feels sad.
Sad in regards that America needs him to come back to talk sanity into some people? Agreed. But we’ve found out over the last several years, some Americans just aren’t smart.
Welcome back, Jon! Thanks for answering the SOS.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts as well.
It worked for Doctor Who. And it seems to be the new Rachel Maddow style of hosting cable shows.
Just come back full time! Showcase the rest of the team after opening! Consistency!
So…still no host has been hired. Those poor correspondents are going through the wringer!
It’s bittersweet news. I could never say no to more Jon Stewart, but this new paradigm also probably means Roy Wood, Jr. is gone for good and it’s a shame. The fact that it’s only through the election also feels like a double-edged sword. After his run I hope they try Weekend Update style co-anchors, that could work really well.
Why do they need a permanent host? I highly doubt there is anyone that watches every Monday – Thursday. Give 4 people each their own night and then viewers know when to tune in for who they want. And if you like all of them then you can watch every day.
I Told all of you….As soon as he ended that Apple deal and after they announced no new host until early next year ala a no compete clause. .I got on here time after time and said Jon Stewart was coming back to the daily show and everyone on here crapped on me saying never In a million years would Jon come back…he didn’t want the going, he’d been there done that. Well in the immortal words of Carrie Mathison I WAS RIGHT!!! Excuse the victory lap but after being made fun of on here this and for the suggestion Red was the mother on blacklist, I’m claiming my rightful flowers.
He’s not coming back full-time. So, technically you’re wrong. He’s pretty much a recurring guest star.
“We spent a year audition a large number of young, diverse candidates and concluded the most qualified person is an old white man who will do 25 percent of the job.”
Stewart is a unique once in a generation voice. Gender and skin color have nothing to do with it.
I love Jon Stewart but I read this as both true and a joke haha thanks for the laugh (and the reminder of the circumstances, regardless of how much I love Stewart).
An old white-looking Jew =/= a “white man.” Take it from this “white-functioning” Jew in America, enjoying a certain amount of white privilege based on skin tone is not the same as having an actual white experience once the actual white people in the room realize you’re a Jew. That’s of course not taking away from the fact that I would have preferred a more diverse host too — Roy Wood, Jr., Sarah Silverman, or Kal Penn. Losing Roy is a huge mistake on TDS’s part in my opinion.
It seems par for the course in the current media landscape. Shows and movies being cancelled all over the place, streaming services raising prices, the recent strikes. It’s chaos.
Hell yes! Even if it is only one day a week, I can think of no one else I would want at the helm of The Daily Show during the months preceding a presidential election other than Jon Stewart.
It sounds crazy, but this could turn the election upside down, thats how much influence Jon Stewart has and how far he can reach. Stewart will decidate all his energy on making a mockery of Trump
Exactly. And those clips will go viral every week, all week long.
Well, it’s how much influence he HAD. I don’t know that he still does after so long away.
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I often wonder if, had he not quit, he might have stopped Trump in 2016. Then I wonder if he quit because he knew he COULDN’T stop Trump . . .
Trump won the Electoral Vote.
Hillary Clinton won the Popular Vote by over two million voters.
Sadly, the U.S. goes by the Electoral Vote.
One wonders what would have happened if this country went by the Popular Vote.
Electoral vote is fair representation. Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc) don’t and shouldn’t speak for the rest of our country. Trump won 2,600 counties compared to Hillary’s 500, winning 83% of the geographic nation.
Democrats and Republicans used to get along with each other.
There were ideological/political differences in opinions, but there used to be common ground.
Land does not vote. People do.
And a large county with 3 people in it shouldn’t speak for a county or state with tens of millions. See how that works?
Funny, I believe that small, sparsely-populated states shouldn’t speak for the rest of the country. Two can play this silly game.
Trees, squirrels and acres don’t vote
You sad little liberals are so delusional. No one who would consider voting for Trump watches Jon Stewart or the Daily Show. And The Daily Show itself reaches less than 500,000 people per night.
Then why does your post sound so angry. A bit nervous now? Good. A lot of Americans hate that a criminal like Donald Trump is running to be dictator.
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If Jon Stewart can make some people remember that is not what America is about? FANTASTIC.
Who thinks Trump voters are watching The Daily Show? Nobody. Believe it or not, Trump voters aren’t the be all and end all of audiences. We already know what they watch. They’re like cats in empty apartments looking at Fox News to keep them from clawing up the drapes.
I’ll love seeing him in the chair again, but they really messed up by not just hiring Roy Wood Jr. They need to get their act together, its not a variety show, it needs a permanent host. I’d say out of the guest hosts that they have had, Kal Penn would be a good choice or give it to a former correspondent Jason Jones or Samantha Bee.
Kal Penn or Al Franken were the two I thought would be best, due to their experiences working in politics. It’s a different perspective that is relatively unexplored, the closest parallel would be Joe Scarborough and he’s obviously far less funny.
Why is Roy Wood Jr. suddenly the pick for host? He’s not the only correspondent and he chose to leave because he himself felt he wasn’t going to get picked. So why are people clamoring for him? Because he and went on a “woe is me” media tour and mouthed “Please hire a host” at the Emmys when he obviously meant “Please hire ME as a host”? Yall need to move on.
Monday nights will now be Must See TV with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.
Oh – Comedy Central wants that Emmy streak back!
Yeah but only on Monday nights? We need him 3 nights at least!
Honestly I think having multiple hosts is a better idea long term. IMO John Oliver’s show is definitely better for being weekly.
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I’m in the UK so the only late night US shows I see are the ones who post on Youtube (watch Colbert’s monologues, not a fan of Meyers to be honest) and because it’s nightly there’s a lot of repetition or standard jokes, having multiple hosts doing their own thing might turn out to work better. Haven’t seen TDS in years though, last time I did in fact before my TV package was changed and I lost Comedy Central was when Stewart was off directing and John Oliver was guest host.
Yay
I wish there was a way to reply to a half-dozen of the earlier comments all at the same time. Carping about this being “sad” or some kind of insult to any of the potential “new” hosts (or correspondents) is cuh-RAY-zee! (Nowhere near as stupid as Apple cancelling “the Problem” because Stewart wouldn’t censor his show with regards to China! But I digress.)
This is exactly what we need for the next year, and I am ELATED that Jon is coming back exactly like this … CC will have the rest of the week to figure out how the show can carry on after the election (and to find a new permanent host) … all with Jon Stewarts exec production guidance. And we get him and all the viral clips we need for the next 11 months to highlight what is sure to be an insane political year.
This is great news, imo
Anyone think Jon Stewart will make an appearance on Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight?
This is such good news!!!!
Ok, who do we predict will be Jon’s first guest on the Daily Show?
Bill O’Reilly?
Michael J. Fox?
Who does he think he is, Rachel Maddow? Actually one night a week with both of them is better than none!
This is 0% shocking
This is great news and almost comforting to hear. I don’t care if they have a regular host if Jon comes back once a week.
Yawn, wheel Stewart out for his demographic.
Seems a bit like going backwards. But would never object to more Jon Stewart. Welcome back Jon!!
I suspect this isn’t going to work out the way they hope. Times have changed and nostalgia is a bad business strategy. A lot of his earlier words and actions are going to get scrutiny and he won’t like that.