Jon Stewart is heading back to “The Daily Show.”
The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as an entertainment and cultural force, will return to host the show each week on Mondays starting February 12, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced Wednesday.
Stewart, who returns as the 2024 presidential election season heats up, will also executive produce the show and work with a rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays.
“Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored 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,” Chris McCarthy, chief executive of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement.
“In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics,” McCarthy added, “Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.”
Stewart gained acclaim hosting “The Daily Show” for his sharp humor which was deployed to deliver stinging — and hilarious — monologues often aimed at exposing the hypocrisy of politicians.
With the 2024 election featuring Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Stewart is likely to have no shortage of material to work with. Stewart has been a strong critic of Trump and will undoubtedly use the platform to needle the former president.
Stewart’s return to the venerable show is sure to generate significant excitement and provide a much-needed jolt of buzz to boost the show, which has struggled to find its footing in recent times.
After exiting “The Daily Show” in 2015, Stewart signed a deal with Apple to host a show for the technology company’s nascent streaming service. But that show abruptly came to an end last year. Stewart told staffers at the time that he had grown frustrated over the control the Silicon Valley giant wanted to exert over the subject matter covered on the show and its guest list.
Convincing Stewart to return to “The Daily Show” is a major coup for Comedy Central. While Trevor Noah received critical acclaim for hosting program after Stewart exited, it never quite had the same cultural impact it did under Stewart’s stewardship.
The poaching of Stewart is also a win for Paramount Global, which has been trying to breathe life into its Paramount+ streaming service. Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, which is responsible for much of the streamer’s content library, said episodes with Stewart will be available on the platform the day after they air on Comedy Central.