Despite countless changes in the parent company supreme skydance, Jon Stewart hopes to continue being the axis of comedy center‘s The daily show.
The political comedian spoke about his plans with The New Yorker‘s David Remnick during the presentation of Legacy magazine party in the citywhich concludes today. When the editor asked if Stewart would opt to renew his contract with the cable channel, the host responded, “We’re working to stay,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“You don’t compromise on what you do and you do it until they tell you to go away,” he said of his dedication to keeping his show honest.
This time last year, the 24-time Emmy Award-winning multihyphenate announced his continuity in the programextending his contract until the end of 2025. Stewart’s return shook the nightlife world when it was announced in January 2024nearly a decade after his departure in 2015. Initially scheduled to host Monday nights until the 2024 presidential election, it was no surprise that his tenure was extended given the ratings are shaken His retaliation was consolidated.
However, much has changed in the media landscape since the comic’s second act, namely the acquisition of Paramount by David Ellison’s Skydance, which gave rise to a newly formed conglomerate that appears increasingly willing to bow to President Donald Trump’s wishes, as Stewart criticized on his show. Throughout numerous recent disruptions to entertainment (notably the shocking CBS cancellation The last show with Stephen Colbert and ABC’s preference Jimmy Kimmel live! — Stewart has remained a staunch and clear-eyed critic of both corporate bowing and the current administration. (Although Paramount has stood by its decision regarding The late show was purely financial, Stewart has questioned his timing, which came days after Stephen Colbert criticized his local network’s decision to strike a deal with Trump. 60 minutes lawsuit, characterizing it as a “big bribe” to massage the imminent Paramount merger.)
Upon returning to his Daily show duties after a brief summer break before official closing of the Paramount-Skydance mergerStewart joked in the night“I was a little worried. We took the end of the summer off there, and I don’t know if you noticed, but we havenew ownershere on the net. You didn’t know if they would let us back into the building? But good news, we haven’t heard from them, but one of the windows was left open, so here we are.”
And, during an emergency recording of The daily show On Thursday immediately after Kimmel’s suspension, Stewart made a point of being “patriotically obedient” to Trump in an attempt to avoid being taken off the air. “We have another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show,” he joked. “I come to you tonight from the true shithole, crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It’s a tremendous mess like you’ve never seen before. Someone from the National Guard should invade this place, right?”
During the conversation with Remnick, which also touched on topics from the No Kings protests to the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival, Stewart also maintained that comedians are not “the victims of this administration.”
“We are a visible manifestation of certain things, but the victims are the victims, the people who are fighting to have a voice and are being forcibly removed from the streets by masked officers, those are the victims of this administration,” he said.