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Jon Stewart
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Jon Stewart talks about his long-awaited return as Comedy Central host The daily showalmost nine years after leaving the late-night gig.
Appearing on Monday CBS Mornings before returning as daily program Hosting Mondays until the 2024 election, Stewart said it was, in fact, the political environment that brought him back, while sharing that the move was influenced by his departure from Apple TV+ over creative differences.
“I really wanted to have a place to unload thoughts as we head into this election season,” Stewart said, later referring to The problem With Jon Stewart not moving forward with a third season on the streamer. “I thought I was going to do it again on… they call it Apple TV+. It is a television enclave, very small. It’s like living in Malibu. “They decided, they felt like they didn’t want me to say things that would get me in trouble.”
Although he has thoughts, Stewart, joining hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson for an in-studio interview, was modest about the influence his version of the show could have on real-world events.
“I don’t know if I hope to have an influence, but I hope to have a catharsis and a way of commenting on things and a way of expressing things that I hope people enjoy,” he said. “But in terms of influence, and you know by doing this, almost everything that I had wanted to happen during the 16 years that I was in The daily show It didn’t happen, if you were expecting influence. And I think I’ve learned that afterdaily program … I don’t really look at it as ‘I really want to have influence on this issue, on this election,’ things like that.”
Just weeks after the 2016 presidential election, Stewart took a similar approach while speaking at an event in New York, quickly rejecting arguments made online that his version of The daily show could have influenced the results.
“We were the destroyers of men and creators of empires,” Stewart joked at the time. “I think, in general, that’s the role of satire and always has been: the rise and fall of civilization at our whim.”
Before his return on Monday, Stewart also spoke with The daily show‘s Ear Edit podcast about why he wanted to go back now.
“If you want to be present in this world, you have to be present in this conversation and you have to be as relentless and tenacious as the counternarrative that is forming. “A lot of the information we see now is weaponized…and it continues to make exponential leaps,” he said. “It’s not just about the elections. It’s AI. It is the way we have militarized all our conflicts. It all ties into a larger idea, which is that the form of government we love so much is analog (I don’t want to say dinosaur), but it is analog and the world is now moving at an increasingly infinite digital pace and reconciling those I think “Two things are the challenge of the moment for people.”
In CBS MorningsStewart also talked about returning to the cable show as the media landscape has changed since he left. The daily show In 2015, Burleson argued that many young people get their news from places like TikTok and other forms of social media.
“Generally, I’ll do it with choreographed dance moves,” Stewart joked about how that change would affect his approach, before getting serious and arguing that quality content will find an audience. “Information is information, and if it’s good content, people will find their way to it,” he said. “I think the worst thing you can do is pander to the idea that young people absorb knowledge and information in a completely different way.”
Last month it was announced that, until the 2024 election, Stewart would return as host of The daily showMonday nights only, starting February 12. The rest of the week, the series will be anchored by a rotating team of correspondents, including Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta and Dulcé Sloan.
However, Stewart will also executive produce the other nights, allowing the former host to be heavily involved in the show leading up to the election and even beyond, and Stewart’s deal will keep him as executive producer until at least 2025.
Stewart’s return comes as The daily show continues to search for a permanent replacement for Stewart’s successor, Trevor Noah, who unexpectedly stepped down as host in 2022.
While Stewart was reluctant to speak further about CBS Mornings As for why he only returned on Mondays, that setup probably made his return more appealing since the host was openly exhausted by the end of his initial run. Starting the week also allows you to mark the agenda for the next few days and comment on the news of a weekend.
And the corporate synergy of an appearance on another network, such as Comedy Central, owned by Paramount Global, was not lost on Stewart.
After King issued a disclaimer about the networks’ mutual parent company, Stewart was quick to joke: “Who’s got the tote bag? Paramount Global Tote Bag.”
“I thought it was called Viacom,” he added of the conglomerate, before joking: “It’s just billionaires moving us around on a Stratego board.”