Earlier this week, Jon Stewart, American comedian, producer, director, actor, and, most famously, television host, will return to Comedy Central as host of the show. But it’s not a full-time gig: He’ll just be on Monday nights, during the 2024 election season. The first show will run on February 12.
Trevor Noah, who was the last full-time host of “The Daily Show,” left in late 2022. Since then, the show has had a rotating lineup of hosts.
According to the New York Times, “Stewart will also be a producer on all episodes of ‘The Daily Show.’ Other episodes of the show will be hosted by a rotating lineup of the show’s news team.” The New York Times said that Chris McCarthy, a senior executive at Paramount, Comedy Central’s parent, was honored at Stewart’s return, “to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season.”
It appears that many in the media are looking for Stewart to be a game changer this coming election season. They also appear confident in his ability to bring back the influence the show had had during its heyday. “Stewart’s talent has always been using humor to disarm dishonest politicians and expose the absurdities of their arguments in a highly entertaining way. He is uniquely talented at drawing on his sharp comedic wit to cut through the political noise and separate fact from fiction for audiences. And during the 2024 election year, that work will be vital,” according to a story titled “Jon Stewart’s return to ‘The Daily Show’ could shake up 2024 politics” on CNN.
Stewart is back on “The Daily Show”
However, the news about Jon Stewart’s return to Comedy Central and “The Daily Show” comes on the heels of news that one of Stewart’s more recent projects, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” which he created with Apple TV+, had been canceled. That show only ran for two seasons. According to the New York Times, Stewart left in October 2023 due to “disagreements with Apple executives over future show topics, including hot-button issues like China and artificial intelligence.” The Times also noted that the show he created with Apple had failed to "gain traction."
Not everyone is excited about the return of Stewart, who hosted the show from 1998 until 2015 and brought us “Your moment of zen” at the end of the show. For example, Meghan McCain, podcaster, columnist, and author, and daughter of Senator John McCain, recently said on her podcast, “I’m the first person to say that when I was a teenager in my formative years, I loved ‘The Daily Show,’” according to The Daily Beast.
But her remarks about the most recent series, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” weren't as flattering. “I found him to be the most woke…," McCain said. "I didn’t recognize the Jon that I grew up loving.”
