Jon Stewart has declared his unwavering commitment, and he's eager to put it in writing. The comedian, whose contract to host The Daily Show expires in December, stated during a conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick at the New Yorker Festival on Sunday that "we're working on staying" when asked if he would "sign another" contract for Comedy Central. When pressed by Remnick on whether he truly desires to remain at the helm of the Comedy Central late-night show he left in 2015 and returned to in early 2024, hosting on Mondays, Stewart agreed. If it's up to him, he wants to stay.
It was roughly a year ago when Stewart announced his intention to remain at The Daily Show until December 2025, but since then, Donald Trump has returned to the White House and Paramount has merged with David Ellison's Skydance. Stewart even referred to Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance and the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, as his "new boss."
In recent months, Stewart's Paramount colleague and former Daily Show co-worker Stephen Colbert announced that CBS's The Late Show would be ending, and Jimmy Kimmel's show on ABC was suspended. CBS, which is owned by Paramount like Comedy Central, announced in July that Colbert's The Late Show would come to an end in May 2026. Although the network claimed it was "purely a financial decision," the move came just days after Colbert criticized Paramount for a $16 million settlement with Trump in a lawsuit he had filed over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 Democratic challenger Kamala Harris.
Stewart too has criticized the 60 Minutes settlement and suggested that the Late Show cancellation was connected to Colbert's critical comments about the lawsuit and President Trump. And he skewered the Kimmel suspension with a satirical, "administration-compliant" edition of The Daily Show. "The fact that CBS didn't try to save their No. 1 rated late-night franchise that's been on the air for over three decades is part of what's making everybody wonder: Was this 'purely financial'? Or maybe it's the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger to kill a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president who's so insecure that he's suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency," Stewart said on The Daily Show days after news broke of The Late Show cancellation.
He added, "If you're trying to figure out why Stephen's show is ending, I don't think the answer can be found in some smoking gun email or phone call from Trump to CBS executives or in CBS QuickBooks spreadsheets on the financial health of late night. I think the answer is in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America's institutions at this very moment, institutions that have chosen not to fight the vengeful and vindictive actions of our... commander-in-chief." To those corporations, advertisers, universities, and law firms, all of them, if you still think that bending the knee to Trump will save you, I have one thing to say [breaking into song]: "I know you're scared, I know you're weary, I know your plans don't include me, but these are troubled times, so sack the fuck up!"
Stewart also spoke about his satirical approach to Kimmel's suspension. "I think it rattled everyone to some extent, but it also presented great opportunity," he said. "So I don't know that we've had as much fun as we did that Thursday morning, coming up with all the stupid little shit that you see, including gold pictures and red ties. It gave us some purpose."
Stewart argued that comedians aren't "the victims of this administration." "We are a visible manifestation of certain things," he said. "But the victims are the people struggling to have any voice and being forcibly removed from the streets by hooded agents—those are the victims of this administration."
Stewart also addressed the recent controversy over comedians performing in Saudi Arabia. While he seemed reluctant to attack those who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, he took a more nuanced approach. "I don't touch other people's money," he said. "It's hard, man." He added with a quip, "I thought the only person who should have done it was Pete Davidson because they owe him money." Alluding to how Davidson's firefighter father famously died responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He continued, "I want to fix my house. I want to operate with integrity, but I don't want to gatekeep... I think a lot of comics who came out and really shit on those guys, I know a couple of them, and I know them actually to be garbage humans. So it's hard for me to watch that sort of thing. I would prefer if they had just come out and said it was about the money and not about starting a conversation. Like would you have started the conversation for $2,500? That’s the difference... We all have our lines that we are willing to cross... We get into a problem when we’re unforgiving in any way when we offer no grace."
