Jon Stewart Returns To ‘The Daily Show’ Next Week: Stroke of Genius or Act of Desperation?

If we’re going to reboot and revive everything we loved watching on TV 20-25 years ago, then why not bring Jon Stewart back behind the anchor desk at The Daily Show?

Catching up with Full House or Frasier to see what happened to everyone might seem great. But the kids have grown up. Stewart has aged, too. And so have we. We are not the same people who watched The Daily Show in 2015, the American media and political landscapes have become more diffuse and divisive since then, and we don’t even consume late-night TV in the same way now.

But here we are now, so now what? Stewart reclaims his seat as host and executive producer of TDS starting Monday, Feb. 12.

In the wake of a surprise win for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah at the Emmys last month, Comedy Central announced that instead of hiring any of the celebrity comedians or actors who auditioned to replace Noah before and after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023, they were going with who? The Who’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

“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 release. “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.”

Friends. After much reflection I have decided to enter the transfer portal for my last year of eligibility. Excited for the future!
5’7” ish
165
14.8 second 40#Blessed #NILBABY #TDSnation #LFGM

— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) January 24, 2024

During Stewart’s previous tenure from 1999-2015, he reshaped The Daily Show from its offbeat parody of a TV news program under original host Craig Kilborn into a half-hour that not only relentlessly skewered their real-life counterparts in broadcast and cable media but also somehow became the most trustworthy source of actual news for Generation X and Millennials.

No matter how great Noah could be, no matter how much the show benefitted from Noah’s perspective as a South African native and that of the writers and comedians he hired to join him — Noah’s hosting debuted coincided with the first day of on-air work for correspondents Roy Wood Jr., Desi Lydic, and Ronny Chieng — a portion of Stewart’s audience never stopped missing him or longing for his return.

But at least Comedy Central had a succession plan in place in 2015, naming Noah before Stewart even left, leaving only the show’s traditional late-summer recess in August as a buffer between the two eras.

When Noah abruptly announced his departure in 2022, I wondered in Decider what the future might hold for the entire network.

“Better yet, what’s the future for The Daily Show or, more broadly, what’s the future for Comedy Central in 2023 and beyond? Paramount already has begun folding Showtime into the Paramount+ platform. Would anyone notice if Comedy Central also ceased to exist as a separate cable channel entity? Have you noticed that The Daily Show and Comedy Central itself aren’t even really in the cultural conversation these days?”

Sure enough, Comedy Central at this point seems held up solely by shoestrings and South Park. Somehow bringing back Stewart almost feels like a last-gasp move for the show, for Comedy Central and even for Stewart himself. That’s despite the show’s Emmy win for the 2022-2023 season.

Back in September 2022, the idea of losing much of 2023 to striking unions didn’t feel so realistic, but the idea then was to have a new host debut this past September. There was that whole dalliance with former Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj, and whether you think Minhaj got railroaded by The New Yorker or whether you think he derailed his own prospects for a promotion, we’re here now. And that Emmy win earlier has put a huge spotlight and target on the show once more, reminding everyone just how directionless TDS and CC has felt recently.

Jen Flanz, the current executive producer, will continue her duties on the show, joined by Stewart, who’ll EP the other three nights and host Mondays through the November election cycle — which as 2020 proved, could force him to stay through the inaugural in January. He’ll be expected to groom the new host or hosts as he did for Noah and everyone else who blossomed on the show during his earlier tenure.

Hosting Mondays only gives Stewart the benefit of a full long weekend of news cycles — everything after the Thursday afternoon taping through Monday afternoon is up for grabs for that week’s telecast. And it has become a trendy move for MSNBC, with Rachel Maddow last year leaving her five-nights-a-week post at 9 p.m. ET/PT for Mondays only, and Jen Psaki replacing Chris Hayes on Mondays at 8 in the hour leading into Maddow.

I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen on my podcasts that I thought The Daily Show would be best served by splitting up hosting duties four ways (a separate one for each night Monday-Thursday). I just didn’t think they’d start the week off with Stewart! My own hopes were for Wood and/or Chieng to get two of the nights, with Leslie Jones and someone who had previous late-night hosting experience such as Chelsea Handler or Sarah Silverman claiming the other night. Instead, Chieng and the other remaining correspondents will rotate in an as-of-yet-undisclosed format for Tuesdays-Thursdays in 2024. Wood left the show when he didn’t get the promotion, but could he be wooed back? He has been touring theaters as double act with Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper, and joined them onstage to accept their Emmy last month where he visibly mouthed his plea for the show to “hire a host.”

Stewart has worked wonders hiring talent who’d go on to bigger and better projects, from Steve Carell, Ed Helms, and Rob Corddry, to separate late-night ventures for Noah, Stephen Colbert, Sam Bee, and John Oliver. Colbert, of course, has gone big time as host of The Late Show on CBS since September 2015 (the same month Noah took over The Daily Show), while Oliver has hoarded Emmys by going the weekly route Sundays with Last Week Tonight on HBO. Oliver expressed genuine shock about Stewart’s return. Which makes sense when you remember Stewart’s spotty track record since leaving Comedy Central. His own HBO deal never materialized in much outside of one Night of Too Many Stars benefit telecast. Stewart’s 2022 film, Irresistible, proved easy to resist by critics and viewers alike. And The Problem With Jon Stewart lasted only two seasons on Apple TV+ before getting cancelled over creative differences.

“That’s a show that needs a host,” Oliver told Today upon hearing of Stewart’s return to The Daily Show. “He certainly is a very, very good one. So yeah, it’ll be exciting to see what he does. I do think after 2025 they should appoint a permanent host. I would have hired Roy Wood, or Amber Ruffin is very good, but it’s going to be very exciting to see Jon again in an election year.”

Just how exciting we’ll all find out soon enough.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.