After months of searching for a new host, The Daily Show announced Jon Stewart will return part-time and serve as executive producer.
Jon Stewart will return to host The Daily Show, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced on Wednesday, ending Comedy Central’s search for a replacement for Trevor Noah, who exited the program back in 2022. Stewart will be back in the host chair on Mondays, starting Feb. 12, while a line-up of comedians and correspondents will fill the slot Tuesdays through Thursdays.
“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,” Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios chief executive Chris McCarthy 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.”
The 2024 election season has kicked off in earnest, with Donald Trump winning the Iowa Republican Caucus, and Joe Biden winning the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
Stewart hosted The Daily Show for 16 years and won audiences over for his scathing remarks on politics and for calling out politicians. He left in 2015 and signed a deal with Apple to host The Problem With Jon Stewart, which ended last year before its third season. According to CNN, “Stewart told staffers at the time that he had grown frustrated over the control the Silicon Valley giant wanted to exert over the subject matter covered on the show and its guest list.”