Big news for Jon Stewart fans everywhere: Our man is coming back to his rightful throne at The Daily Show. Even better news: He’s going to tackle the 2024 elections and all of the nightmare fuel that’ll ensue.
The Daily Show is a satirical late-night talk show that first premiered in 1996, with Craig Kilborn being its very first host. The show frequently took aim at American politics and held interviews with notable figures like Anthony Fauci and Barack Obama.
Stewart hosted the program from 1999 to 2015. No disrespect to Trevor Noah (or Kilborn) but Stewart is by far considered to be the most popular and iconic host of the program in its televised history. As we’ve talked about before, the man’s just good at what he does and is an excellent humanitarian, chipping in for many charity drives.
As all good things must come to an end, Stewart eventually left The Daily Show in 2015, wrapping up an incredible 16-year career. According to The Guardian, Stewart cites exhaustion with the cycle of programming as the main reason why he left. “It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working any more, or that I didn’t know how to do it,” he told The Guardian. “It was more, ‘Yup, it’s working. But I’m not getting the same satisfaction.’”
Once Stewart left, comedian Trevor Noah took over as the new host of The Daily Show from 2015 to 2022. After Noah left, the show pivoted to rotating guest hosts, like Leslie Jones and Hasan Minhaj.
As said by Bloomberg, Stewart is now breaking his long absence and returning to The Daily Show as host once more. As of now, this doesn’t seem to be a permanent position, as Stewart will only be covering the 2024 elections.
Stewart is set to rejoin the late-night show on February 12 and host every Monday night. For the other days in the week, Comedy Central will again rotate through a cast of performers as hosts. Stewart is also going to be an executive producer on the show as well.
The Daily Show has been in strange turmoil since the leaving of its two mega-popular hosts Noah and Stewart. The program seems to have struggled to find a permanent host in the time since their departures, relying more on part-timers than anything else. Even now, Stewart himself is only a part-timer.
But if you ask me, Stewart’s return is needed now more than ever. His biting satire is going to ring like a bell through the miasma of the upcoming elections. With that being said, what comes after for The Daily Show? Will it finally find its new Noah/Stewart figure to helm the ship?
Only time will tell where things eventually end up for the program. For now, let us rejoice because the king is back, baby.
(featured image: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central)
