First on LateNighter: Jon Stewart will return as Monday night host of The Daily Show for another year.
The deal to extend the contract of one of the most iconic hosts in late-night television history was concluded Monday. Stewart was set to share the news with the show’s staff this afternoon before his scheduled hosting appearance on tonight’s show.
The agreement was confirmed to LateNighter by multiple sources informed of the details of the deal.
The terms are basically the same as they have been since Stewart’s return to The Daily Show two years ago, in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
He will host the show on Monday nights and continue serving as one of the show’s executive producers through December 2026. His current contract was set to expire at the end of this December.
The deal is anticipated to be announced by Comedy Central and the new ownership of its corporate parent, Paramount Skydance, later today.
The extension of the multi-Emmy-winning Stewart comes at a point of unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval across late-night television. One of its leading hosts, Stephen Colbert, a Daily Show legend himself, has already been canceled out of his Late Show starring role by CBS—a sister network of Comedy Central.
That happened just prior to CBS and Comedy Central being included in the takeover of Paramount by Skydance Media.
The move stirred questions of whether warm relations between Skydance’s owner, David Ellison, and President Trump—and the need for government approval of the takeover—influenced the cancellation.
Stewart himself referred to that suspicion on The Daily Show after Colbert announced his cancellation, and he has spoken out several times since about the importance of standing up to potential intimidation by the government against the right of political satirists to freely mock the president.
He more or less laid down his gauntlet about his intention not to cave as so many other media companies, law firms, and academic institutions have under bullying from Washington.
On the air, Stewart told those institutions to “stop their pre-compliance” because “these are troubled times.” His command: “sack the f**k up.”
That clearly set the expectation that he was ready to take his own advice. Stewart told David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, that he was “working on staying” during an interview for the magazine’s annual festival last month.
The only real remaining question seemed to be whether Comedy Central and its new owners were just as interested as Jon was in continuing.
It didn’t hurt that consideration that ratings for The Daily Show among advertiser-coveted 18–49-year-olds have been sharply up this season—a truly rare event for anything that counts as a legacy linear television show.
Now that last question has been answered. Jon Stewart will be at his post, speaking comedy to power on Monday nights, for at least another year.
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Hallelujah! So happy one of the best voices in today’s crazy political landscape will continue to be around for at least another year. Thanks for standing up, Jon (I’ve loved you forever), Comedy Central, and Paramount.