Will Jon Stewart comeback bring ‘The Daily Show’ another Emmy?
Trevor Noah went out with a bang on “The Daily Show.” After seven years behind the anchor desk on the comedy news series, he stepped down at the end of 2022, and then won the 2023 Emmy for Best Variety Talk Series. Did he take the awards mojo with him, or will “Daily Show” prevail again in 2024?
After Noah’s exit the series cycled through a series of celebrity guests. Then the correspondents started taking turns as host. And in February came the return of the man who could be key to the show’s Emmy fortunes: Jon Stewart. When Stewart originally hosted the show from 1999 to 2015, he created an awards dynasty: “The Daily Show” won Best Variety Series 11 times. Then he passed the baton to Noah, but a new dynasty started elsewhere: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” began its winning streak in 2016 and hasn’t lost the top program award since.
The good news for “The Daily Show” was that 2023 also marked a shift at the Emmys: “Last Week Tonight” was moved out of the talk show category into a new race for Best Scripted Variety Series, where it started facing sketch comedies like “Saturday Night Live.” That opened the door for a new talk show champ, and Emmy voters gave the nod to Noah.
But now that Stewart is back — once a week, but back nevertheless — will voters be as enthusiastic about him as they once were? Noah’s “Daily Show” actually beat “The Problem with Jon Stewart” in 2023, so he isn’t as invincible as he once was. Then again, “The Daily Show” is the incumbent in the race, a proven winner against shows that haven’t claimed top honors, so the presence of Stewart might be enough of a competitive advantage to get the show back into the winner’s circle.
According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, though, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is the show to beat with 53/20 odds. “Daily Show” is close behind with 16/5 odds. A potential game-changer in the race is John Mulaney‘s first-time contender “Everybody’s in L.A.” Voters love Mulaney — he has collected three Emmys to date — but his new show is untested at these awards. So get ready for another season of talk show competition in flux.
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