Late-night fans who missed out on Stephen Colbert’s guest chairs now have something else to set their sights on.
Another as-seen-on-TV sofa that saw years of notable guests and political comedy is up for sale: a couch from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s early years. The velvety purple guest couch that sat on Stewart’s set in the early 2000s was recently listed for sale by a lucky fan who acquired the piece of furniture directly from the show.
Stewart, who took over The Daily Show in 1999, was welcoming guests to this particular couch by the fall of 2000. It remained a fixture of the set through late 2003, with everyone from Val Kilmer to then-Senator Hillary Clinton taking a seat on it. By early 2004, the show replaced it with a similar blue model. (A year later, the show moved to a new studio and lost the couch altogether, leading to a fan-organized “Bring Back the Couch” campaign—a movement that was vocal enough to be highlighted by Stewart himself on the show.)
Both couches were ultimately unloaded via fan sweepstakes. The purple couch was the first to be given away in 2003. Since then, this particular piece of once-famous furniture has been enjoying a quieter existence in a living room outside Syracuse, New York.
LateNighter spoke to the seller, who recounted winning the contest back in the early 2000s. “I asked for a certificate of authenticity,” she recalled, but the show went one better: a signed photo of Stewart sitting on the couch, clutching one of its cushions.
“May it bring you great comfort,” Stewart wrote. “I’ve taken all the change from the cushions.”
“My husband and I were huge fans of the show,” she said, noting that she’s only selling the couch now in an effort to downsize. “I covered it with a fitted couch cover to protect it, so it is in really great shape.”
“I [contacted] Heritage Auctions,” she added, but the auction house, which has previously sold sets and memorabilia from other late-night shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, and Saturday Night Live was not interested.
The couch, which the seller claims was appraised at $3,000, is currently listed for $1,500 or best offer on Facebook Marketplace.
