Veteran comedian Jon Stewart has returned to his seat as host of The Daily Show. Picture: jonstewartdaily/Instagram
Ironically just days after winning his first Emmy Award for his last season on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, the South African comedian has joined many of those who’ve congratulated Jon Stewart on his return to the TV show.
With the US in election season, there’s a strong voice needed in the media to help voters cut through the noise and Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced the return of the politically astute Stewart who previously hosted The Daily Show for 16 years.
“Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honoured 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 Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios CEO, Chris McCarthy 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.”
Stewart will host the show only once a week on Mondays, from February 12 as well as serve in the role of executive producer for the show, which is expected to have a rotating line-up of comedians during the rest of the week.
After leaving, Stewart has hosted The Problem With Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ and was executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
ALSO READ: WATCH: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah nabs Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Series
Trevor Noah won an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Talk Series” at the Emmy Award ceremony last week. This was the first victory in the category since the departure of Jon Stewart in 2015.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart won the Emmy Award for best variety series for 10 years in a row from 2003.
Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios has struggled to find a suitable replacement for Trevor, who left the show after seven seasons in December 2022.
“I don’t think it was eight years of incredible success, there was a few years of struggling, which is part of the journey,” said Noah in an interview last year while in South Africa.
“It was very lonely. It was lonely because I came in very much as an outsider, people were complaining even about my accent.”
NOW READ: ‘It was very lonely’: Trevor Noah reflects on his time on ‘The Daily Show’
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