After a nearly ten-year break, comedian Jon Stewart is coming back to “The Daily Show.” Starting Feb. 12 and throughout the election season, he’ll host Monday nights, all the while serving as the show’s executive producer.
Can Stewart maintain his large and loyal following? Can he expand his audience beyond the liberal Gen-Xers and millennials who constituted his fan base from 1999 to 2015?
The nation’s mediascape, as well as its culture and politics, have changed radically over the past 10 years.
Even for an artist as popular and accomplished as Stewart, neither outcome is assured. The nation’s mediascape, as well as its culture and politics, have changed radically over the past 10 years. Those shifts have generated new challenges that Stewart and his team over at Comedy Central will have to creatively navigate.
It is, of course, perfectly reasonable to wager that this experienced political satirist is poised to haul in a massive audience in his second stint behind the desk. The man, after all, is a legitimate comedy pioneer. During his stewardship of “The Daily Show,” he became a master of “politainment,” a genre that is a profitable mix of art and commerce. It accrues consumer attention and advertiser dollars. Politainment also permits an entertainer not only to comment on, but also shape political discourse.
Few did it better than Stewart. His signature evening cocktail of 100-proof hard news and acidic partisan satire not only incubated talents such as Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Hasan Minhaj and John Oliver, but also had global impact. Among those who have followed in his footsteps are Bassem Youssef in Egypt, Brian Tseng in Taiwan, Okey Bakassi in Nigeria and Ahmad Albasheer in Iraq, among others.
Stewart is not only a comedic innovator, but also something like a Trusted Name In Liberal America. His good work on behalf of veterans and 9/11 first responders has established him as an impassioned advocate for worthy causes. If liberals hoarded gold bullion or were reverse-mortgage curious or purchased “men’s health supplements,” Stewart could surely sell it to them.
Unlike other celebrity comics, he doesn’t tow a veritable Airbus A380-800 cargo-hold of personal baggage alongside him from gig to gig (although one might reasonably ask whether the “blind spots” that led to backstage tension at “The Daily Show” in 2011 have been addressed). He has not run afoul of #MeToo advocates. He doesn’t routinely “beef” with aggrieved minorities on X (as does his friend Dave Chappelle, who humorously dubbed Stewart a “super Jew” in his recent special). He doesn’t get “canceled” every Tuesday.
Nor will Stewart 2.0 lack for rich comic earth to frack. The election cycle is comedy gold (and also, alas, tragedy gold). All of which might suggest that “The Daily Show,” with its talented and likable host/executive producer,