What To Know
- Jon Stewart, who returned to host The Daily Show on Monday nights in February 2024, is actively working to extend his contract beyond its current December expiration.
- Stewart has expressed a strong desire to remain as host and executive producer, recently extending his contract through the end of 2025 and launching a companion podcast, The Weekly Show.
- His contract negotiations occur amid industry upheaval, including the Paramount-Skydance merger and Stephen Colbert’s Late Show cancellation, which Stewart has publicly criticized.
Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show in February 2024 to host Monday nights, and he’s hoping to continue in the role beyond his current contract, which expires in December.
During a conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick at Sunday’s (October 26) New Yorker Festival, per The Hollywood Reporter, Remnick asked the comedian if he was going to “sign another” contract with Comedy Central. Stewart responded, “We’re working on staying.”
When Remnick asked whether that meant he wanted to remain at the helm of The Daily Show, Stewart said yes, noting that if the decision were up to him, he would stay.
Stewart originally hosted The Daily Show from 1999 to 2015, winning twenty Primetime Emmy Awards as either a writer or producer. He announced his departure in February 2015 and signed a four-year deal with HBO and, later, Apple TV+.
He returned to The Daily Show on February 12, 2024, hosting Monday nights and also serving as executive producer alongside his manager, James Dixon. He also began hosting The Weekly Show, a companion podcast, in May 2024. Stewart extended his contract in October 2024 to remain as host until the end of 2025.
Stewart’s contract negotiations come amid Paramount, Comedy Central’s parent company, and Skydance’s merger, and amid the axing of his former Daily Show colleague Stephen Colbert‘s Late Show at CBS. The host has commented on Colbert’s firing on The Daily Show, suggesting it might have been politically motivated.
“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their No. 1 rated late night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder: Was this ‘purely financial’? Or maybe it’s the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger to kill a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president who’s so insecure that he’s suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency,” Stewart said at the time.
He added, “To those corporations and advertisers and universities and law firms, all of them, if you still think that bending the knee to Trump will save you, I have one thing to say [breaking into song]: I know you’re scared, I know you’re weary, I know your plans don’t include me, but these are troubled times, so sack the f*** up.”
The Daily Show, Weeknights, 11/10c, Comedy Central, Next-Day Streaming on Paramount+