<!-- wp:html --><p>Comedy Central</p>
<p>The fate of <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/the-daily-show"><em>The Daily Show</em></a> was never more uncertain than in the weeks leading up to Comedy Central’s Hail Mary decision to bring back <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/jon-stewart">Jon Stewart</a> as Monday night-only host through the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/2024-presidential-election">2024 presidential election</a>.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the show had just won its first Emmy Award since <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/trevor-noah">Trevor Noah</a> took over from Stewart in 2015. But on the other hand, it was still without a permanent replacement for the South African comic <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trevor-noah-ends-his-daily-show-with-emotional-tribute-to-black-women-and-his-haters">more than a year after his departure</a>—as <em>Daily Show</em> correspondent <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jordan-klepper-and-roy-wood-jr-talk-daily-show-drama-and-2024-tour">Roy Wood Jr.</a> pointedly reminded viewers, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/roy-wood-jr-quietly-shades-the-daily-show-at-the-emmys?ref=topic">mouthing “please hire a host”</a> from the Emmy stage.</p>
<p>Then, after Comedy Central delayed the show’s post-Christmas return from early January to February 12 and announced what was <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/comedy-central-daily-show-host-no-choice-correspondents-1235879076/">essentially the end of its year-long search</a> for a host, one insider at the show predicted to me that the network might be running out the clock until a potential Paramount merger in order to kill the show altogether.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jon-stewart-uses-daily-show-return-to-equate-trump-and-biden">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->
The fate of The Daily Show was never more uncertain than in the weeks leading up to Comedy Central’s Hail Mary decision to bring back Jon Stewart as Monday night-only host through the 2024 presidential election.
On the one hand, the show had just won its first Emmy Award since Trevor Noah took over from Stewart in 2015. But on the other hand, it was still without a permanent replacement for the South African comic more than a year after his departure—as Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. pointedly reminded viewers, mouthing “please hire a host” from the Emmy stage.
Then, after Comedy Central delayed the show’s post-Christmas return from early January to February 12 and announced what was essentially the end of its year-long search for a host, one insider at the show predicted to me that the network might be running out the clock until a potential Paramount merger in order to kill the show altogether.
