Jon Stewart spoke with CBS Mornings ahead of his highly anticipated return to the host chair at Comedy Central's The Daily Show.
It's almost been nine years since Stewart hosted the show, but he's returning now every Monday night through the 2024 election. He said it was the political environment that brought him back, as well as his departure from his Apple TV+ show The Problem with Jon Stewart due to creative differences.
The Daily Show's Jordan is back
“I very much wanted to have some place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season,” he said on the CBS show, referring to his show abruptly ending before it could start with its third season.
“I thought I was going to do it over at — they call it Apple TV+. It’s a television enclave, very small. It’s like living in Malibu. They decided, they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble,” Stewart added.
While he's usually credited as the one responsible for having shaped a new generation's appreciation of how the news is told, he doesn't think that his influence is all that far-reaching when it comes to real-world events.
“I don't know about hoping to have an influence, but I'm hoping to have a catharsis and a way to comment on things and a way to express them that hopefully people will enjoy,” Stewart told CBS Mornings hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson.
“But as far as influence, and you guys know from doing this, just about everything I had wanted to happen over the 16 years that I was at The Daily Show did not happen, if you were hoping for influence. And I think I've learned that post-Daily Show … I don't really view it as, ‘I really want to have an influence on this issue, this election,' things like that,” he explained.
The Daily Show (Jon Stewart version)
After the 2016 presidential election, Stewart said during a New York Times talk that his own version of The Daily Show could have influenced the voters.
“We were the destroyers of men and creators of empires,” he said jokingly.
“I think that generally is satire's role and has always been: the rise and fall of civilization at our whim,” Stewart elaborated.
He also spoke with The Daily Show's Ears Edition podcast about the timing of his return.
“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 as tenacious as the counter-narrative that’s being formed. So much of the information that we see now is weaponized … and it keeps taking exponential leaps,” Stewart said.
He further explained, “It's not just the election. It's AI. It’s the way that we've militarized all our conflicts. It all ties together to one larger idea, which is the form of government we love so much is an analog — I don't want to say dinosaur — but it is analog and the world now moves at an increasingly infinite digital pace, and reconciling those two things, I think, is the challenge of the moment for people.”
When CBS Mornings' Burleson said to Stewart that the news landscape has changed, how many young people now get their news from social media platforms like TikTok.
To that, Stewart jokingly replied, “Generally I will be doing it with choreographed dance moves.”
“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 this idea that young people absorb knowledge and information in an entirely different way,” Stewart elaborated.
Actress and former TDS correspondent Olivia Munn once said during Stewart's 2022 Mark Twain Prize ceremony, “Jon actually made it cool to be informed and have an opinion on the news. And that's why today, every God damn person has an opinion on every God damned thing that happens every God damn second. Well done, Jon. Well done.”
On my end, welcome back, Jon. Now we have the person to blame for the millions of podcasts back on our screens.
Follow Us
Subscribe