Deadline: Jon Stewart Returns To ‘The Daily Show’ & He’s Excited

Story from Deadline:

“Welcome to The Daily Show, my name is Jon Stewart.”

The comedian kicked off his return to the Comedy Central and he’s jazzed.

“Now where was I? I’m excited to be back. Why am I back, you may be asking yourselves, it’s a very reasonable question. I have committed a lot of crimes and from what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but take it up with the founders,” he added.

Stewart was returning to the franchise that he turned around, ostensibly replacing Trevor Noah, who left over a year ago, with a few celebrity guest hosts helping out in between.

He kicked off the show as he always used to, with some good-natured political ribbing. He also managed to get another jibe at Apple, which canceled his previous show The Problem with Jon Stewart because of his interest in talking about some difficult topics for the tech giant.

“We’re going to have so much to talk about this year; the elections, maybe we’ll talk about China, AI, something a little lighter, Israel/Palestine,” he said.

After some Super Bowl jokes, he focused in on the conspiracy involving the CIA’s effort to turn Taylor Swift and her relationship with Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce into a President Biden pysop.

“It’s almost like the right’s ridiculous obsession with politicizing every aspect of American life ruins everything,” he said.

Stewart, who came out to the taping to the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run,” then brought back one of his audience’s favorite bits: Indecision.

He soft launched some titles: Indecision 2024: American Demockracy (“we added a ‘k’, which makes it wittier”), Indecision 2024: Electile Dysfunction (“we changed one letter, are you disappointed yet?) and Indecision 2024: Antiques Roadshow.

In a classic Stewart move, he then turned serious. “I’ve learned one thing over these last nine years, and I was glib at best, and probably dismissive at worst about this, the work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunchpail f*cking job, day in and day out where thousands of committed of smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues until they get a positive result. Even then, have to stay on to make sure those result holds. The good news is I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election, I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after, forever. Although, on the plus side, I’m told the sun will run out of hydrogen,” he said.

Later in the show, Desi Lydic and Michael Kosta were out on the campaign trail. Lydic is planning to spend nine months in a Michigan diner and Kosta is in the same diner but the “realer part of the diner, not the booth section with all of the coastal elite Democrats and their fancy back support”.

Dulce Sloan was outside the same diner, calling the election a reboot. “This is the same shit all over again, it’s just a reboot, we need more than just the same show with an older yet familiar face,” she said in a nice slam at Stewart.

“You’re talking about the candidates?”

“Yeah, they already had this job, now these old white dudes got to come back and reclaim it, like c’mon, go do something new, don’t be so desperate, let someone else run the show,” she joked.

“We’re talking about the election, yeah?,” asked Stewart.

“I said what I said,” she retorted.

Ronny Chieng was also at the same diner, obviously.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, Jordan Klepper was behind the desk alongside Stewart. “Shouldn’t you be outside talking to some insurrectionists in a parking lot?”

“Did you save democracy yet?,” asked Klepper. “With your ’90s brand of snark and both-siderisms. Searing Jon.”

Stewart revealed that Klepper would be hosting the rest of the week. “It’s great having you back,” Klepper said. “This is going to be so much fun.”

Tonight’s guest was Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of The Economist.

Before launching into his first Moment of Zen in eight years, Stewart said “this has been a blast”.

The episode is being simulcast CMT, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, Pop, and TV Land.

Exec produced by showrunner Jen Flanz, Stewart and his manager James “Baby Doll” Dizon and co-exec produced by Ramin Hedyati, Justin Melkmann and Zhubin Paranag and directed by David Paul Meyer, it is produced by Stewart’s Busboy Productions and MTV Entertainment Studios.