The Daily Show
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$80 Million
“The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.” Although he launched his career as a stand-up comedian in the late 1980s, Jon Stewart is best known as a political commentator and television host of The Daily Show, Comedy Central’s satirical news program. During his tenure on the show, Stewart was known for his outspoken antics and criticism of popular media that earned him numerous awards. However, since leaving The Daily Show in 2015, the 56-year-old has kept a low profile that leaves many to wonder what he’s up to these days!
Early Life and Career Beginnings
The second of four sons born to an educational consultant and physics professor, Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz came into this world on November 28, 1962, in New York City, New York. His parents divorced when he was 11 years old and Stewart remained estranged from his father for most of his life. He grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and attended the local high school where he experienced the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal, both of which made him skeptical of the news since what he heard in the classroom and at home differed from what the media reported.
During high school, he worked at the local Woolworths store and, after graduation, enrolled at The College of William & Mary. He majored in psychology and played on the soccer team but had little interest in school itself as he later admitted, “My college career was waking up late, memorizing someone else’s notes, doing bong hits, and going to soccer practice.” Following college, Stewart picked up a variety of jobs as a contingency planner with the New Jersey Department of Human Services, a contract administrator for the City University of New York, a caterer, and a puppeteer for children, to name a few.
After college, Stewart returned to New York City to try his hand at comedy but struggled to find the courage to get on the stage. Finally, after a year of practicing, he made his stand-up debut at The Bitter End and eventually became a regular performer at the Comedy Cellar where he developed his comedic style. He was hired on as a writer for Caroline’s Comedy Hour in 1989 and then snagged a co-hosting gig on Comedy Central’s Short Attention Span Theater (1990). He hosted the short-lived MTV series You Wrote It, You Watch It (1992) but didn’t truly become a household name until 1993 when he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
Stewart developed a new talk show for MTV, The Jon Stewart Show, which was an instant hit following its 1993 debut. The show was syndicated the following year and Stewart was signed on to David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants production company. Later in the decade, he hosted Where’s Elvis This Week? on BBC Two before he skyrocketed to fame in 1999 when he signed on to host The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Blending humor with top news stories while poking fun at politicians and media outlets, Stewart found his niche as a commentator, comedian, and television host.
The Today Show and Beyond
Stewart hosted The Today Show through several elections as well as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was rumored to replace David Letterman on CBS in 2002 but the rumor fizzled as Stewart showed an interest in moving his talents to ABC with a new late-night series. However, ABC reneged the offer and brought over Comedy Central figure Jimmy Kimmel to host the show.
Stewart remained in place on The Daily Show for the next decade but expanded his reach in Hollywood when he optioned the rights to tell the story of journalist Maziar Bahari who was imprisoned in Iran for 118 days. He briefly left The Daily Show to direct the film version of Bahari’s 2011 book, Then They Came for Me, which he adapted into a screenplay titled Rosewater. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released to the general public in November 2014.
Following the film’s release, many wondered if Stewart had plans to leave The Daily Show but the television host denied the rumors. “I would do what I’m doing,” he said when asked what he would do if he left the show. “Whether it’s standup, the show, books or films, I consider all these just different vehicles to continue a conversation about what it means to be a democratic nation, and to have it written into the constitution that all men are created equal…”
A year after Rosewater was released, Stewart had a change of heart and announced he was leaving The Daily Show after an impressive 16-year run. “It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working anymore, or that I didn’t know how to do it. It was more of, ‘Yup, it’s working. But I’m not getting the same satisfaction…’ These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it’s OK. But the cycles become longer and maybe more entrenched, and that’s when you realize, ‘OK, I’m on the back side of it now.’”
Stewart later admitted that his decision came after the joy he found working on Rosewater, which made leaving before the 2016 Presidential election all the more important. “Honestly, it was a combination of the limitations of my brain and a format that is geared towards following an increasingly redundant process, which is our political process. I was just thinking, ‘Are there other ways to skin this cat?’ And, beyond that, it would be nice to be home when my little elves get home from school, occasionally,” he said. As for the election, Stewart didn’t think twice. “I’d covered an election four times and it didn’t appear that there was going to be anything wildly different about this one.”
Since leaving The Daily Show in 2015, Stewart has flown under the radar in Hollywood. In 2018, he was scheduled to make his directorial debut with the political satire Irresistible starring Steve Carell, but the film has yet to be released. Beyond that, the 56-year-old happily spends time at home with his wife and their two children. They live at a 12-acre farm in Middletown, New Jersey and were recently approved to open a 45-acre animal sanctuary in Colts Neck to save animals from slaughterhouses and live markets, a passion close to Stewart’s vegetarian heart!
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