It’s never too late to get with the times. Two years after re-entering the late-night game, Jon Stewart is finally, officially on Instagram.
The Daily Show host hard-launched his new profile yesterday with an extreme close-up of his face, explaining “I joined Instagram…because I am a lifestyle brand.”
While his Daily Show has maintained an account for years that sits just shy of 12M followers, Stewart has shied away from a personal page until now.
Technically, the account isn’t new for Stewart. The host reserved the “@jonstewart” handle some time ago, but left his page empty. Its first sign of activity was sharing the cast announcement for Stewart’s Broadway debut in All Out. A few days ago, the page was part of a collaborative post with the Instagram account of Stewart’s podcast, The Weekly Show.
But now it appears Stewart is officially behind the wheel of his namesake account. Today, he followed up his first personal post with two more: a pouty, sarcastic plea for U.S. control of Belgium, and a demand that his dog Toby receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Until now, Stewart had been the odd man out among his peers when it came to an Instagram presence, thanks in part to the host having spent six years retired from the talk show grind. (He returned to a hosting role with Apple’s The Problem with Jon Stewart in September 2021, and began his Monday-night Daily Show gig in February 2024.)
In the meantime, Stewart’s fellow late-night hosts have built commendable followings on their personal Instagram accounts. Jimmy Kimmel has an impressive 4.2M Instagram followers—a number that surged amid his removal from ABC. But Jimmy Fallon commands a strong first-place showing with 28.6M followers.
While Stewart has some catching up to do, he’s making good progress. Despite having only four grid posts, his page already has amassed over 500,000 followers.
With those numbers, he still trails most of his fellow Daily Show hosts, whose follower accounts range from the hundred-thousands to the millions. Social media-favorite Josh Johnson leads the pack with 2.1M followers, followed by Ronny Chieng with 1.5M. Stewart is closer to Jordan Klepper (781K) and Desi Lydic (661K), and has already surpassed Michael Kosta (204K).
Stewart has been a late adopter to social media before. The host went without a Twitter (now X) account for years, joining fairly late in the game in January 2021. “Thanks for the warm welcome!” he posted on Twitter at the time. “I promise to only use this app in a sporadic and ineffective manner.” Despite being late to the party, Stewart amassed 120K followers in five hours, and over a million within two days. Today, that number sits at 1.5M.
Of course, even without an Instagram, Stewart has certainly made his presence felt across late-night. Over on YouTube, the host’s monologues made up a majority of the most-watched late-night clips of 2025.
As for who Jon Stewart follows on his new Insta, the host is keeping his enemy close. Borrowing a page from his Twitter playbook, Stewart follows just one account besides The Daily Show and The Weekly Show—longtime foe Arby’s.
