On Thursday, the American comedian, writer, producer, director, actor, media critic, and television host - Jonathan "Jon" Stewart, is leaving the satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central - The Daily Show. Jon Stewart has been hosting the Daily Show for 16 years.
Trevor Noah will continue the show as the new host. Jon Stewart has become a main source of news by his show, Stewart even earned the title of America's most trusted news person in a 2009 TIME poll. Jon Stewart also leaves the show a long legacy of funny monologues and scathing media criticism.
In an interview, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, a Democrat and himself a former performer on "Saturday Night Live," said, "He made the position what it was and he was smart and talented enough to imagine what this could be," "It evolved very quickly under his leadership and used the format of fake news to talk about everything and anything, and do it brilliantly."
The Daily Show was on a little-watched cable network, with around 350,000viewers a night, but when Jon Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn over the Comedy Central's late-night slot, the viewer's number went up year after year, and at the height of the show in the 2008-2009 season, it grew with 1.6 million viewers a night (many of the viewers were young and left-leaning).
Mr. Stewart's viewership is a thing that is helpful for Comedy Central, but Jon Stewart was far from a universally loved figure as the Pew Research poll said that many of Jon Stewart's spectators distrusted the show.
The longtime TV news reporter Jeff Greenfield, stated, "I think Stewart has it both ways," "He says he's just a comedian but he's more than a comedian and I think he knows that. I spent three decades-plus doing network news, but if you ask me today, what do I pay more attention to, John Oliver and Jon Stewart or the evening newscast, it's not close. I get much more out of Oliver and Stewart when he's cooking than I do out of those formulaic 22-minute newscasts."
