Jon Stewart to return as (part-time) host of ‘The Daily Show’ through 2024 election

By Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times

Updated: January 25, 2024 Published: January 25, 2024

Jon Stewart attends The Albies hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library in New York on Sept. 28, 2023. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Jon Stewart is returning to his roots.

The comedian will host “The Daily Show” on Monday nights beginning Feb. 12 and continuing through the 2024 election cycle, Comedy Central announced Wednesday. Stewart will also executive produce the show through 2025.

Other members of “The Daily Show” news team will host on the remaining nights of the week.

Episodes will air on Comedy Central and be available to stream on Paramount+ the next day.

“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,” said Chris McCarthy, president and chief executive of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios. “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 news comes more than a year after Stewart’s successor, Trevor Noah, stepped down from his perch at “The Daily Show,” leaving the program without a permanent host, and four months after the abrupt cancellation of “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” Stewart’s Apple TV+ talk show.

Stewart’s return will coincide with what is sure to be a contentious presidential election year with a likely rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, with vital stakes for American democracy.

Stewart took over as host and executive producer of the Comedy Central program in 1999, and helped give it a more sharply topical focus. Beginning with the chaotic 2000 presidential election, through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Iraq war and the rise of the tea party, “The Daily Show” became a must-watch source for political and media commentary. Stewart was especially known for his sharp critiques of conservative media, particularly Fox News. He left the show in 2015, just as Trump began his political rise.

During Stewart’s tenure, “The Daily Show” also became a pipeline for comedy talent, helping advance the careers of John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Samantha Bee, Jessica Williams and others.