Jon Stewart is returning to his old job — albeit on a part-time basis. Stewart will host “The Daily Show” on Monday nights when the satirical news program relaunches Feb. 12 on Comedy Central.
Stewart, born in New York City and raised in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, was the second permanent host of “The Daily Show.” During his tenure from 1999 to 2015, the talk show earned 24 Primetime Emmy Awards. Stewart left the show just as the 2016 presidential campaign season was kicking off.
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Trevor Noah took the reins soon afterward, but left at the end of 2022. Last year, the show rotated several guest hosts in the chair, including Kal Penn, Michelle Wolf and Chelsea Handler. But Comedy Central now has decided to lean on the show’s correspondents to share hosting duties – with an assist from Stewart.
The show’s correspondents – Jordan Klepper, Ronny Chieng, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan and Michael Kosta – will host the show Tuesdays through Thursdays. In addition to hosing Mondays, Stewart will serve as an executive producer and remain in the roles at least through the 2024 election.
“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/MTV Entertainment Studios said in a statement. “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.”
When Stewart left “The Daily Show” in August 2015, he primarily cited exhaustion from the news cycle. Hosting only one day a week may alleviate that sticking point, in theory. Stewart also is an executive producer of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” with Stewart and Colbert having been co-workers at Comedy Central.
Stewart created, produced and hosted “The Problem with Jon Stewart” for Apple TV+; the show ended after two seasons, reportedly due to creative differences stemming from the show’s coverage of artificial intelligence and China.