As of this week, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show is now the fourth longest-running late-night talk franchise in American history. (As measured in time, not number of episodes.)
The show officially made the jump from fifth to fourth this past Monday—exactly 28 years, three months and 20 days after its series premiere on July 22, 1996.
Now in fifth place is CBS’s The Late Late Show, which ran from January 9, 1995 to April 27, 2023. Tom Snyder was the first of four Late Late Show hosts—he was followed by Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and James Corden. Corden’s retirement last year brought an end to the franchise. Its former timeslot was filled by After Midnight starting on January 17, 2024.
As it happens, Kilborn served as The Daily Show’s initial host before moving to The Late Late Show in 1999. His successor, Jon Stewart, hosted for almost 17 years before passing the torch to Trevor Noah, who stepped down on December 8, 2022. The show currently features a rotating team of anchors led by Stewart, who fittingly hosted Monday’s milestone episode.
With the top three longest-running late night talk franchises all still on the air, The Daily Show won’t be moving further up the list any time soon.
Its closest competition is CBS’ (The) Late Show, which has been on the air for 31 years, two months and 14 days. Ahead of that is another franchise originated by David Letterman: NBC’s Late Night (42 years, nine months, 12 days), and in the number one spot, of course, is NBC’s The Tonight Show, which quietly turned 70 years old in September.
