Jon Stewart Explains Daily Show Return Ahead of First Show, How World Has Changed

More than just a silly late-night spoof, The Daily Show became a cultural touchstone and at one time was reported as the primary news source for many of its younger viewers. People were as invested in Stewart's take on politics and the world around them as any cable news pundit.

Now, with the 2024 election looking more and more like a rematch between President Biden and former President Trump, Stewart stunned the world by announcing that he was returning to the show that made him a household name as executive producer -- at least through 2025 --and Monday host -- at least through the election.

It's been more than a year since Stewart's successor Trevor Noah stepped away himself as permanent host of the nightly show in late 2022. Since that time, The Daily Show has subsisted on a variety of guest hosts while never quite settling on a new face for the important franchise.

Even now, with Stewart's much-lauded return, the show still doesn't have a permanent host. He might be the captain of the ship, but he's only agreed to be its face for one night a week. Beyond that, the round table of hosts will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

But what was it that brought Stewart back into the fold? Part of it, perhaps, could be the demise of his Apple TV+ series, The Problem with Jon Stewart. That series, which was a more involved and in-depth expansion of the type of political commentary he was doing on TDS, was canceled in the fall amid reported creative issues with Apple.

Ahead of his first show tonight, Stewart sat down (appropriately enough) on The Daily Show: Ears Edition podcast to talk about why this felt like the right time to return amid so much upheaval and turmoil in the political landscape ... and media in general.

"If you want to be present in this world, you have to be present in this conversation and you have to be as relentless and as tenacious as the counter-narrative that's being formed," Stewart told showrunner and executive producer Jen Flanz and co-executive producer Zhubin Parang, per The Los Angeles Times.

"So much of the information that we see now is weaponized," he continued, "and it keeps taking exponential leaps. It's not just the election. It's AI. It's the way that we've militarized all our conflicts. It all ties together to one larger idea."

That idea, according to Stewart is the disconnect between the United States form of government, which he calls "analog" in a world that "now moves at an increasingly infinite digital pace."

He calls that disparity and disconnect "the challenge of the moment for the people."

For Stewart, the proliferation of AI into the media and entertainment landscape is a big reason he feels compelled to come and be a part of the conversation. He describes AI as "an information-laundering system, a vacuum that takes up all the pieces of human information then spits them out in reconstituted form."

"I think you have to register your thoughts and complaints so that it can be referenced," he explained. "If you want the world of the future to be informed by what you think is the right part of the present, you have to register, you have to get it out there."

He's not just thinking about how AI can affect the present, but how it's growing presence can impact the future. If our voices are silenced or replaced by this "information-laundering system" today, how will that impact a future that's looking back at an artificially-chronicled history?

Another massive shift in the cultural landscape that's been around quite a bit longer than AI -- but not as long as Stewart has been absent from The Daily Show -- is the dominant proliferation of social media. It's power to accelerate hate, misinformation, and conspiracy theories is second to none in history.

"It's a much more dire situation," Stewart said of the online media landscape, "but at least none of these social media entities have monetized that idea and incentivized misinformation because that would truly be truly dangerous. I'm really glad that they fight it so vigorously."

Just in case that last bit didn't translate in print, it was definitely said with Stewart's signature tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. It's also proof that despite the decade away, the comedian remains as in touch with the culture -- popular and political -- as ever.

You can bet fans old and new will be tuning in tonight to see his triumphant return to The Daily Show at 11pm ET on Comedy Central.