After scuttling a months-long search for a new host, the Paramount Global network said it had enlisted Jon Stewart, who presided over the late-night mainstay’s most popular era, to serve as its host on Monday nights throughout the 2024 election cycle and to run the program. He is expected to oversee the program through 2025. Various “Daily Show” correspondents will host the program Tuesday through Thursday nights, and Jen Flanz, the current executive producer, will continue her duties on the show.
Jon Stewart is quite awesome in my book. He is legit funny and he put the Daily Show on the map with being officially a comedy show (and it was hilariously funny) but at the same time being just about the only reliable news source as he just cut through the political bullshit from both sides (again, in a super funny way). He has great interviews with politicians where he calls them out on their bullshit so hard that you wonder why any politician would still want to do interviews with him, but yet they kept coming.
Thing is, you can tell that he researches and knows the subjects that he talks about and he actually cares, so if during interviews the guy comes up with some bullshit arguments Jon would typically tear him a new hole with actual facts. He was like the original “he crushed that guy” guy. IIRC, he (temporarily) crushed ticket Carlson’s career by literally ending tickets show overnight with an interview. Unfortunately, Jon retired and Tucker was fucking back.
His show also was the birth place of other comedians like john Oliver (who went on to make the similar great show “last week tonight”), Steve carell, and Stephen Colbert
The guy following after him, Trevor Noah, was just a sad little shadow, honestly, and in stoked to hear Jon is back as he has shown that he hasn’t lost his touch.
Yeah, before Tucker got his Fox segment, he used to do a show on CNN with Paul Begala called Crossfire, whose entire schtick was having a conservative and a liberal talking head co-hosting the show and basically arguing with each other for an hour. Jon came on the show in 2004 and ripped the entire concept apart so thoroughly that it got the entire show cancelled. It’s truly a glorious moment: https://youtu.be/aFQFB5YpDZE&t=0
That’s intense. Good on him.
And twenty years later the knock on effects of that era of programing have become the culture.
Thanks, that’s some resume.
The Daily Show was funny with Craig Killborn.
More like Talk Soup funny than anything intellectual or political.
But still was worth a chuckle.