Jon Stewart surprised his audience and viewers at home Monday when his critique of recent over-the-top cable news coverage of the Trump Trial was interrupted by former Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams.
“Jessica! How are you? Are you down at the courthouse to give us a report?”
“Uh, yeah, I am,” replied Williams. And here’s my report: Jon Stewart hates fun.”
Stewart, who struggled to keep it together during Williams’ appearance Monday night seemed genuinely tickled to be working with her again. The two appeared to go off-script at least a couple times, with Stewart at one point exclaiming “I’ve missed you terribly,” and Williams saying the same.
The former correspondent sang Stewart’s praises in a 2023 interview with People Magazine in which she called him “one of the best bosses ever.”
“A lot of things made Jon a great boss, but he’s just a nice man and was always willing to bank on the unknown,” she explained. “And when he hired me, I was really green – I hadn’t had any real experience on late night, but he just hired me on raw talent and what I was capable of.”
Hired in 2012 at just 22 year old, Williams was the youngest-ever correspondent to join The Daily Show. She appeared in 141 episodes of the show over four years.
She’s gone on to appear in quite a few movies, including Booksmart, The Incredible Jessica James, two Fantastic Beasts films, and the Max series Love Life. She earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, in which she starred opposite Harrison Ford and Jason Segal.
Hers was one of the names floated when Trevor Noah left the show in 2022, but she demurred.
“I really, really love acting,” she told People Magazine at the time. “There’s something really special about it. I light up doing it and feel like I’m mining my own personal life and experiences and world on camera. And doing that in a scripted way is really fun. It feels almost like, in between action and cut, I just get to escape and go to a different world and just play this game and be present on set.”
Yeh, but she could just do Mondays with John again. No?