Jon Stewart recently made his highly anticipated return to Comedy Central, where he will be hosting The Daily Show in the lead up to the presidential election later this year.
His first episode back kicked off with a tense condemnation of the upcoming election, as Stewart directly criticized both President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Trump, 77.
“We have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history of this country,” he pointed out. “They are the oldest people ever to run for president — breaking by only four years the record that they set the last time they ran!”
It’s almost like he never left.
But the late night host’s return has been enough to leave fans wanting more.
For now, Stewart will only be hosting The Daily Show Monday evenings, with a rotating panel of guest hosts appearing the rest of the week. Gayle King recently asked why he opted to only appear once a week, to which Stewart responded, “I just felt like just doing Mondays.”
Here’s what we know about Stewart’s return to The Daily Show.
For now, it appears that Stewart’s return to the show is just temporary.
Stewart will continue hosting Monday evenings until around November, through the 2024 election cycle. But he is set to stay on as an executive producer until well into 2025, which could open the door for future appearances on the show!
The comedian has not announced any plans to stay on permanently, even as The Daily Show struggles to find a suitable host to replace Trevor Noah, well over a year after his sudden departure.
But there’s certainly something in it for him. Stewart recently said that he took the opportunity to have a “place to unload thoughts” as we enter this messy election season, after Apple TV+, where he hosted his previous show The Problem With Jon Stewart, turned out not to be the right place for him.
“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. But they decided that they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble,” he told CBS Mornings yesterday (Feb. 12).
Perhaps this newfound freedom at Comedy Central will be enough to convince him to stay.