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Jon Stewart has made his comeback to “The Daily Show” after a 12-week hiatus. During the first eight weeks of his absence John Oliver, Senior British Correspondent for the show, took over for the role of host while Stewart traveled to Jordan to make his directing debut with “Rosewater.”
Oliver began his temporary job in early August and though it was foreseen that the summer would not bring much controversy, Oliver’s first day proved that theory wrong as he tackled the NSA snooping scandal, gay marriage, Paula Deen, immigration, the royal baby and Anthony Weiner. Skeptical fans were left feeling confident that Stewart had left the show in competent hands.
During his short term, Oliver’s work for the show was praised by many including The Observer which claimed that “he’s a breath of fresh air for Comedy Central’s political satire;” and The Wrap which said that the show was “as sharp as ever.” Furthermore, according to L.A. Biz, ratings for Oliver were solid and even improved slightly.
Now that Stewart is back in the driver’s seat, the question is: would “The Daily Show” be better off with or without him? I think the show is better with him and here’s why.
Over the 14 years that Stewart has manned the job, he was won 18 Prime Time Emmy awards, and back in 2009 was named America’s Most Trusted Newsman – post-Cronkite – after been selected in a poll done by Time Magazine.
Although Stewart is not a journalist, but a comedian, he has managed to guide the attention of younger generations towards political matters that they would otherwise be unaware of due to a lack of interest in news matters. According to a 2010 report by the Pew Center, “The Daily Show” was found to be one of the shows with the youngest audiences of any outlet included in the survey, with 55% of its public being ages 18 to 49.
On social media, the answers from the public to Stewart’s return mostly read: we love John Oliver, but are glad to have Jon Stewart back.
And the TV ratings were also parallel to those statements. According to TV by the Numbers, Stewart’s return on Tuesday night garnered over two million total viewers, an increase of 24 percent over the show’s season-to-date average.
Here is a little piece of the host’s successful return.
Although, Oliver managed to have a great eight weeks, I think it was in part due to the fact that it was a temporary gig. Many fans love John Oliver, but they think that he should have his own show – as seen in the public’s responses on “The Today Show’s” article “John Oliver says goodbye to hosting ‘Daily Show’” – not take over “The Daily Show.”
What Stewart’s sabbatical has taught us is that the show could survive without him, but (and this is a huge but) until he decides to retire from the show by his own choice, fans don’t want anyone else but him. Plus, after Oliver’s great success as an interim host, I’m sure that Stewart is more than ever on his toes.
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Comments
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It just makes me sad that so many young adults get their Political opinions from Stewart, without ever understanding the underlying issues he is parodying. He is funny ,but his shtick is one sided and formulaic at this point.
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Not that I’m advocating narrow-mindedness and not researching issues from different angles, but even if you were to get your news solely from The Daily Show, you’d still have a more accurate portrayal of what’s going on in the world than Fox News. It’s a better news program than others. Which is both impressive and sad.
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exactly! i started watching this show when i was younger, but never got all political over it. a lot of the stuff he says is more hard hitting and less one-sided than most networks. he does it in a funny way to influence a younger crowd.. i don’t find anything wrong with that. i’d rather my kids watching daily show than a network filled with dumb females with permanent smiles, and douche bags with one-sided views. i don’t pick sides.. i look it at it from both angles, otherwise you get caught up in the hate that co-asides with being “political”.
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says the guy who gets his “facts” from fox news..
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For lack of a better analogy, Stewart is the gateway drug for killing apathy amongst the nations youth and be more involved and up to date with the world’s current events. I started with Stewart (still watch and love his show) but now I get my daily news fix from CNN.
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Course people feel more trusted towards a comical parody of a news in the daily show, when you got fox news which is so blatantly right wing propaganda geared. Supposed
legit anchors on fox will even admit oh we’re just commentators not real newsman.
legit news turned into a joke themselves that turned into the loudest most absorb shouting matches.People respect Jon Stewart not cause he has an agenda but actually calls BS on both political parties and if you honestly believe fox by being fair and balanced with absolutely no agenda while you believe bill o rielly word is gospel…it’s you who I feel sad for.
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I think it’s like saying do you want a red miata, or a yellow miata. The Daily Show is a liberal comedy show, just about anyone can slip into that job and hit a home run. This is his first lasting success. It will be just fine without him, or with him, whatever.
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first Oliver hosted for 12 weeks, then you changed it to 8 weeks? Stewart just started this month, Oliver started hosting before september, somebody didn’t do their homework.
