They say you can’t go home again… but Jon Stewart may prove to be the exception. The 22-time Emmy winner began his second term as host of The Daily Show Monday, where he was quick to acknowledge how surreal it was to be back at Comedy Central’s World News Headquarters after forfeiting his seat to Trevor Noah in 2015. Welcome to The Daily Show, he began. My name is Jon Stewart. Now, where was I? I’m excited to be back, he said. You may be asking yourselves, why am I back? It’s a very reasonable question. The answer? I have committed a lot of crimes. From what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity, so…. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but take it up with the founders.
We’re gonna have so much we’re gonna talk about this year, Stewart promised. Obviously, the election, maybe China… maybe we’ll talk about A.I…. maybe we’ll talk about something a little lighter: Israel-Palestine. Who knows!
It’s nine months until the Election people! Woo woo! he exclaimed. And the exciting part is we already know our candidates. It’s… drumroll, please: these f-king guys!
As previously reported, Stewart will host every Monday through the presidential election in November. Daily Show correspondents will take turns hosting Tuesday through Thursday.
His return to the Daily Show desk comes 14 months after his successor, Trevor Noah, walked away from the gig after a seven-year run. What followed was an exhaustive search for a new host that saw nearly two-dozen familiar faces try out for the gig — but in the end, Comedy Central went with… none of them.
In addition to hosting duties, Stewart will stay on as an executive producer through 2025 and help shape the next chapter of the show. His Daily Show encore comes four months after the cancellation of his Apple TV+ series, The Problem With Jon Stewart, which ran for two seasons.