The Daily Show

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The Daily Show
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart logo
Genre	Comedy
Running time	22 minutes
Creator(s)	Madeline Smithberg Lizz Winstead
Starring	Jon Stewart (1999 - present) Craig Kilborn (1996–1999) Correspondents
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	Comedy Central
Original run	July 22, 1996–present
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Daily Show (currently The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) is a Peabody- and Emmy-winning half-hour American satirical news television program produced by and run on the Comedy Central cable television network.

The show premiered on Monday, July 22, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn, who acted as an anchorman. In 1998, Kilborn left the show and was replaced by Jon Stewart in early 1999. Providing news-related comedy in the tradition of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment, Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show, and the long-running Canadian series This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Daily Show reports on the foibles and hypocrisy of the real world with a satirical edge. Since Stewart's entrance, the show has also developed a reputation as one of the sharpest political commentary shows on American television.

Contents 1 Studio 2 Production 3 History 3.1 With Craig Kilborn (1996–1998) 3.2 With Jon Stewart (1999–present) 3.2.1 Current format 3.2.2 Interviews and guests 4 The Daily Show as a "news source" 5 Criticism 5.1 Interviews 5.2 Enabling complacency 6 Editions for various markets 7 Spin-offs 8 Awards 9 Correspondents, contributors, and staff 9.1 Correspondents 9.2 Contributors 9.3 Alumni 9.4 Writing staff 9.5 Other staff 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Studio

The program originates "from Comedy Central's world news headquarters in New York" (as is announced in the opening of each show), where Stewart is joined on-screen by a group of correspondents who provide humorous reports and commentary. On July 11, 2005, the show moved its "World News Headquarters" in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan at 733 11th Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets. The set changed along with the move, gaining a sleeker, more formal look, including a backdrop of three large television panels which at first was not well-received by many fans of the show. The set change immediately spawned a backlash among fans and served as impetus for a campaign to "Bring Back the Couch" as it was not a part of the new set. The campaign was subsequently mentioned on the show by Stewart and supported by Daily Show contributor Bob Wiltfong. The couch was eventually made the prize in a Daily Show sweepstakes in which the winner got the couch, round-trip tickets to New York, tickets to the show and a small sum of money. Their old studio is now used for The Colbert Report, a Daily Show spin-off starring former correspondent Stephen Colbert.

[edit] Production

According to an October 7, 2003, USA Today article, the show is pulled together by researchers scanning major newspapers, the Associated Press, and cable news channels. Then, they give possible topics to the ten writers. The writers meet to discuss headline material for the lead news segment. By 11:15 AM they meet with Jon Stewart, and by 12:30 PM they have come up with jokes for the day's show.

The Daily Show tapes four new episodes a week, Monday through Thursday, in studios located at 733 11th Avenue, New York City. Taping of the program begins in front of the audience at 6:30 PM; the show is then broadcast at 11 PM Eastern/10 PM Central, a time when local television stations show their real news reports, and about half an hour before most other late-night comedy programs begin to go on the air.

While the studio capacity is limited, tickets to attend tapings are free and can be obtained if requested far enough in advance.

[edit] History

[edit] With Craig Kilborn (1996–1998)

The Daily Show was created by Lizz Winstead and Madeline Smithberg. Searching for a weeknight staple to replace Politically Incorrect (a Comedy Central program that moved to ABC), Comedy Central premiered The Daily Show in the summer of 1996. A fake news program originally hosted by Craig Kilborn, the show featured a humorous take on contemporary news events. Aimed to parody conventional newscasts, the show featured a comedic monologue of the day's headlines, mockumentary styled on-location reports, in-studio segments, guest commentary, and debates. The show also took advantage of its visual medium, littering episodes with small touches like in-screen images labeled with their own gags, and presenting absurd bits of trivia coming back and going into commercials. Such segments included: "This Day in Hasselhoff History", "Last Weekend's Top-Grossing Films, Converted into Lira", and "Trivial Compromise" in which Winstead's mother, Ginny, would ask and answer various trivia questions. Originally the show was done without a studio audience, and would just prompt the laughs of its own off-camera staff members. A studio audience was incorporated into the show for its second season, and has remained since.

Under Winstead and Kilborn the show had a much more relaxed atmosphere, with not all contributors wearing suits. Kilborn often made personal asides to the audience taking on the character of an "enlightened frat boy". Kilborn would also often dance for the audience, especially on Thursdays as a celebration of the end of the week. In each show Kilborn would conduct very informal celebrity interviews that would end with a segment called "Five Questions" in which Kilborn would ask a sequence of five questions that often had irrelevant answers. The routine was derived from a pick-up line of Kilborn's invention, which Winstead thought would make good material for the show.

Regular correspondents included Brian Unger, Beth Littleford, and A. Whitney Brown. Stephen Colbert joined the cast a year after it premiered and was referred to as "The New Guy" for the remainder of Kilborn's three year tenure. Lizz Winstead herself also acted as a contributor as well as a writer in a weekly spot called "He Said, Winstead" in which she and Kilborn would ad lib a point-counterpoint style argument.

Each show was capped off with a segment called "A Moment of Zen" that often showed random video clips of humorous and sometimes morbid interest such as a snake charmer pulling a snake out of his throat via his nostril. A controversy arose due to one clip in which Asian men and women were shown throwing live baby chicks at alligators as feed. Winstead reacted to complaints by creating a similar video in which she threw fake chicks into a pond from a row boat.

Tensions often flared behind the scenes between Kilborn and female cast, leading Beth Littleford (a once-crew-leading member of the Daily Show) to comment later that Kilborn was as "dumb as a post". In a 1997 Esquire magazine interview, Kilborn made sexually explicit comments about his female coworkers. This led to a two week suspension without pay. Co-creator Winstead quit one month later.

In 1998 Kilborn left The Daily Show in order to replace Tom Snyder on CBS's The Late Late Show. He was able to take the interview segment "Five Questions" with him to the new show, disallowing any new TDS hosts from using it in their interviews. Correspondents Brian Unger and A. Whitney Brown left the show shortly before him. Unger returned for a single show in which he was supposedly killed on assignment by an incoming cruise missile.

Kilborn's last new show was aired on December 17, 1998. Reruns were shown until Jon Stewart's debut 4 weeks later.

A book released by Comedy Central titled The Daily Show: Five Questions (ISBN 0-8362-5325-6) was released in 1998, and highlights many of the best interview moments from Craig Kilborn's stint as host.

[edit] With Jon Stewart (1999–present)

Jon Stewart took over as host on Monday, January 11, 1999. Stewart had previously hosted two shows on MTV (You Wrote It, You Watch It and an eponymous talk show) and been cast in films and television. As part of their negotiations with him, Comedy Central agreed to give Stewart an executive-producer credit and change the name of the show from simply The Daily Show to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.^{[verification needed]} In return, Stewart, previously famous for his casual on-stage attire often consisting of a leather jacket and jeans, had to wear a suit in keeping with the newscast theme of the show.^{[verification needed]} His first guest was Spin City's Michael J. Fox, who quipped, "I've been on this show more than you have!"

Unlike Kilborn, whose dialogue and character were written entirely by others, Stewart served not only as host but also as a writer and co-executive producer of the series. His influence is noted for heading a significant shift in the way the show handled news. Stewart had a markedly different style, bringing a sharper political focus to the humor than the show previously exhibited. This satirical edge, combined with the show's 2000 Election coverage, dubbed "Indecision 2000", helped to catapult Stewart and The Daily Show to new levels of popularity and critical respect. With Stewart on board, the show has won nine Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, and its ratings more than doubled according to a 2003 Newsweek article.^{[citation needed]} By 2004, the show had emerged into a pop culture hit and one of the most popular programs on cable television.

Stewart took over hosting from Kilborn retaining much of the same staff and on-air talent, allowing many pieces to transition without much trouble, while other features like "God Stuff", with John Bloom presenting an assortment of actual clips from various televangelists, and "Backfire", an in-studio debate between Brian Unger and A. Whitney Brown, evolved into the similar pieces of Stephen Colbert's "This Week in God" and Colbert and Steve Carell's "Even Stevphen". Since the change, a number of new features have been, and continue to be, developed as well. The ending segment "A Moment of Zen" developed from a random selection of humorous videos to often being recaps or extended versions of news clips shown earlier in the show (though sometimes are completely unrelated to any previous segment). The show's theme music, "Dog on Fire" by Bob Mould, was re-recorded by They Might Be Giants.

[edit] Current format

The show's format has remained relatively stable throughout the years. Each episode opens with the introduction, "From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." This used to be followed by the statement "The most important television program ever," but this was eliminated from the introduction following the September 11, 2001 attacks when the show resumed on Thursday, September 20. The show's format generally begins with the host's monologue of news headlines. The Daily Show runs this portion for the first segment, and may include "on location" reports. However, the correspondents are usually just standing in the studio with an obviously greenscreened backdrop. While generally no note is made of this fact, it is occasionally the subject of jokes, such as having a correspondent report from a press base on Mars (this joke was used when the first Mars Exploration Rover landed), or a correspondent report from San Andreas of the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A few reports are actually done on location; for example, Jason Jones was actually in Denmark for a March 28, 2006 report, which he proved by shoving the person behind him (an uncredited passerby). Introductions and on-screen graphics always label the same four reporters as "senior" specialists in the subject at hand, sometimes with absurdly specific expertise. A given reporter may be "Senior Palestinian Analyst" one day, "Senior Agricultural Reporter" a few days later, "Senior Papal Vacancy Expert" the next week, and for the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson, "Senior Jackologist" then "Senior Child Molestation Expert". The show formerly split the news into segments known as "Headlines", "Other News", and "This Just In", though these titles were dropped sometime around 2003. Stewart and company have fine-tuned the technique of intercutting commentary with footage, in which the host or correspondent can stop the action at a telling moment, and register skeptical reserve or excruciated dismay, as political clichés, dud imagery, or self-contradictory statements hang in the air.

Following the regular news portion are correspondent pieces and interviews, the order of which varies from episode to episode. Correspondent pieces involve the show's members actually traveling to a different location to make a report or interview people important to the story. Topics vary widely, ranging from the invention of hufu, a tofu-based human flesh substitute, to a piece highlighting the lack of Asian men in pornography. Local media have reported on visits from Daily Show correspondents.^[1]

Some segments occur periodically, such as "Mark Your Calendar," "Back in Black" with Lewis Black, "This Week in God", "Trendspotting" with Demetri Martin, "Poll Smoking" with Dave Gorman and "Great Moments in Punditry as Read by Children" (small children reading transcripts of contentious moments from programs like Crossfire and Hannity and Colmes). Since the early days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a common part of the show has been "Mess O' Potamia," focusing on the troubles in that region.

[edit] Interviews and guests

Main article: List of The Daily Show guests

In addition to news stories, The Daily Show includes interviews with celebrities, semi-celebrities, authors, musicians, and political figures. The political interviews have featured many prominent guests such as:

• U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter & Bill Clinton.
• U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
• U.S. Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker & Colin Powell.
• U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
• U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
• U.S. Senators Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, John Edwards (who in 2003 announced his candidacy for the presidency on the show), Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Trent Lott, John McCain, Zell Miller, Barack Obama & Rick Santorum.
• DNC Chairman Howard Dean and RNC Chairmen Ed Gillespie & Ken Mehlman.
• CIA Directors George Tenet & James Woolsey.
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf is the only sitting head of state to appear on The Daily Show.

Through Kilborn's run and the early years of Stewart's, the celebrity interviews would most often take place midway through the program. In recent years this has changed to the interviews being placed near the end of the show. Recent years have also seen the show's guest list tend away from celebrities and more towards non-fiction book authors and various political pundits, as well as many prominent elected officials.

On December 1, 2005, the White Stripes became the first musical guests to perform on a regular episode of the show. After a brief interview with Stewart, the duo performed their songs "The Denial Twist" and later, "My Doorbell." In a press release, Stewart said, "We've never had a musical performance on the show before — not because we haven't wanted one — but because we were holding out for a reunited Spandau Ballet. This will have to suffice." They Might Be Giants's appearance on the December 15, 1999 special "The Greatest Millennium" where they performed the theme (Bob Mould's "Dog On Fire"), incidental music, and their song "I Can Hear You" is not counted, as the producers do not consider it to be a part of the regular series. Another "unofficial" performance came on September 29, 2003, when Tenacious D played from the couch. Most recently, the November 28, 2006 show—also Stewart’s birthday—featured a live performance of by guest Tom Waits, who played his song "Day After Tomorrow" during the closing credits.

When Stephen Colbert started his own show, The Colbert Report, which airs immediately after The Daily Show, Stewart began ending his show "checking in" with Stephen Colbert, usually exchanging notes on each other's shows, which is then followed by the Moment of Zen. On August 8, 2006, Stephen Colbert turned the tables and "checked in" with Jon Stewart as Stewart was leaving to go home.^[2] On August 10, 2006, Stephen Colbert reappeared on the set of The Daily Show to demand that Jon apologize to Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly, who in a discussion said that Stewart and Colbert "counted for nothing" and showed "clips of old ladies slipping on ice" for humor. Colbert, in character, condemned The Daily Show for angering Rivera and O'Reilly. When Stewart refused to apologize, Colbert proclaimed him "On Notice", though Jon averted the crisis by appearing on The Colbert Report the following Monday and apologizing (after "walking a mile in Geraldo's shoes" by wearing his moustache).

On September 13, 2006, a new portion of the interview segment began called "The Seat of Heat", wherein the host would ask a guest one "hard" question to be answered. On September 18, 2006, for example, former United States President Bill Clinton was asked how Hillary Clinton could be defeated, should she run for President. The segment was quietly discontinued starting November 27, 2006, after the Thanksgiving Break, probably due to the guests' reluctance to actually answer the question.

[edit] The Daily Show as a "news source"

Television ratings show that the program generally has 1.5 million viewers nightly,^[3] a high figure for cable television. In demographic terms, the viewership is skewed to a relatively young audience compared to "real" news shows. A 2004 Nielsen Media Research study commissioned by Comedy Central put the median age at 35. In fact, during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the show received more male viewers in the 18-34 year old age demographic than Nightline, Meet the Press, Hannity & Colmes and all of the evening news broadcasts.^[4]

The show's writers often repeat the fact that The Daily Show is a comedy program and not a reliable news source by itself. The show does not follow normal rules of journalistic integrity, but much of the schtick of the program involves questioning whether establishment television news sources in the United States, notably the cable news channels CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, are holding themselves to high journalistic standards. Likewise the show is far more likely to point out acts of government ineptitude (such as a Senator doing a crossword puzzle during a relatively important hearing), hypocrisy, and contradictory statements than most sources in the legitimate media.

The Washington Post ran an article on August 24, 2004 in which it quoted Nightline anchor Ted Koppel, who said to his viewers in a telecast from the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston: "A lot of television viewers — more, quite frankly, than I'm comfortable with — get their news from the Comedy Channel on a program called The Daily Show." Stewart took issue with Koppel's comment, saying Daily Show fans watch "for comedic interpretation" of the news. "[They watch] to be informed," Koppel replied, refusing to budge from his position: "They actually think they're coming closer to the truth with your show." Stewart shot back: "Now that's a different thing, that's credibility, that's a different animal." Appearing on each other's shows a few weeks later, Koppel and Stewart downplayed the idea that the two had any mutual animosity. Also, in America (The Book), written by the staff of the Daily Show, Ted Koppel was one of only two political interviewers that the authors deemed credible (the other was Tim Russert).

The National Annenberg Election Survey at the University of Pennsylvania ran a study of American television viewers around the same time and found that fans of The Daily Show had a more accurate idea of the facts behind the 2004 presidential election than most others.^[5] The study primarily focused on comparing the audiences of TDS with that of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman, but Daily Show viewers also beat out people who primarily got their news through the national evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC and those who mostly read newspapers, while roughly matching the knowledge level of viewers who watched a considerable amount of cable TV news. The study attempted to compensate for the fact that many viewers of TDS get information from many sources, including the Internet. The Daily Show does contain many facts in addition to the jokes. Often, to distinguish something as factual, Stewart will prepend the statement with the words "...and, this is true..."

In 2006, a study published by Indiana University tried to compare the substantive amount of information of the Daily Show against primetime network news broadcasts. Julia R. Fox, an assistant professor of telecommunications at the university, showed in her study, "No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign"^[6] (to be published in the summer of 2007), that when it comes to substance, there is little difference between the Daily Show and other news outlets. By using coverage and footage of the 2004 Presidential Election, she analyzes and compares both communication mediums. What she found was that neither actually offers more, since both programs are more focused on the nature of "infotainment" and ratings, making them both "equal" in content.^[7] The analysis indicates that the Daily Show offered more humor than substance in their coverage, but that same study also found that the typical network coverage preferred to offer more hype than any real political substance.^[8] The study seems to indicate that either the Daily Show has become a legitimate 'news source' or the mainstream media has ceased to be one.^[9] Julia Fox states that "In an absolute sense, we should probably be concerned about both of those sources, because neither one is particularly substantive. It's a bottom-line industry and ratings-driven. We live in an 'infotainment' society, and there certainly are a number of other sources available." According to Fox, the study was less of an endorsement for the Daily Show; rather instead was meant to indict the negligence of news networks for their failure to uphold high standards in their political coverage.^[10]

Stewart was half-facetiously floated as a possible successor to Dan Rather of CBS Evening News according to Time (this is partly due to the fact that, at the time, Comedy Central and CBS were both owned by media conglomerate Viacom).

The Daily Show writers authored a best-selling text, America (The Book), published in September 2004. It remained a bestseller even after the election, despite a decision by Wal-Mart to cancel its order because Chapter 5, on the Judicial Branch, includes obviously doctored photographs of the then current Supreme Court justices, with their heads superimposed on appropriately aged naked bodies. On the page opposite the photographs, the reader is invited to "restore their dignity" by covering each justice with a cutout of his or her robe. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman was quoted in USA Today as saying, "We felt a majority of our customers would not be comfortable with the image." The book was also banned from some Mississippi public libraries for its ribald "centerfold". (The ban was lifted within 24 hours of its announcement after the library board received complaints.) Stewart responded to this on air by saying, "Of course the go-to joke here would be, 'They have libraries in Mississippi?' But we're not going there."

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Interviews

While the Daily Show is considered by its creators to be a "fake news program", some critics have said that current host Jon Stewart regularly has as guests the very politicians and newspeople he often lampoons, but rarely takes them to task face-to-face; instead, politicians on all sides of the spectrum use the show as a platform to reach younger demographics. Show co-creator and ex-producer Lizz Winstead said of interviews with controversial figures:

Jon's tremendous. I feel, though, when you are interviewing a Richard Perle or a Kissinger, if you give them a pass, then you become what you are satirizing. You have a war criminal sitting on your couch—to just let him be a war criminal sitting on your couch means you are having to respect some kind of boundary.^[11]

During Stewart's appearance on CNN's Crossfire, he criticized that show and its hosts for "hurting America" by reducing issues to a left vs. right screaming match and enabling political spin. When co-host Tucker Carlson complained that Stewart did not ask John Kerry substantial questions when Kerry appeared on The Daily Show, Stewart countered that it was not his job to give hard-hitting interviews. Suggesting that a "fake news" comedy program should not be held to the same standards as real journalists, Stewart said, "You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls! What is wrong with you?" Stewart also directly addressed the criticism, noting of his Kerry interview, "I also asked him if he was in Cambodia", in reference to accusations that disputed some of Kerry's service record in Vietnam.^[12]

[edit] Enabling complacency

In a March 3, 2006, article in The Boston Globe, "Why Jon Stewart Isn't Funny", Michael Kalin argued that Jon Stewart's laughs come at the expense of idealism, and too easily enable American college students to adopt a self-righteous attitude toward politics, ultimately rendering them complacent and apathetic.

Stewart...leads to a "holier than art thou" attitude [among students] toward our national leaders. People who possess the wit, intelligence, and self-awareness of viewers of The Daily Show would never choose to enter the political fray full of "buffoons and idiots." Content to remain perched atop their Olympian ivory towers, these bright leaders head straight for the private sector.^[13]

A Daily Reflector article about The Daily Show viewers concluded that they trust their own knowledge in politics, rather than the news media or the elites who run the political-media system. The article suggests that citizens who believe they understand politics may be more active in the system than those who do not. Yet the article also points out that cynicism can be a voter turnoff.^[14]

Many do not agree that watching The Daily Show is harmful to the youth or the cause of apathy on young voters.^[15][16] Critics of the show suggest that Stewart's criticism is causing a loss of confidence in government and the media, thus damaging confidence in America.^[17] Defenders of the show point out that Stewart is putting a humorous spin on a faulty system. They contend that as long as Stewart's jokes are factually correct, then responsibility for increased cynicism should belong to the political and media figures themselves, not the comedian who makes fun of them.^[18]

[edit] Editions for various markets

An edited version of the show, called The Daily Show—Global Edition, is run outside of the U.S. on CNN International once a week. This edition is always prefaced by the following announcement, which is also displayed in written form against a Daily Show background: "The show you are about to watch is a news parody. Its stories are not fact checked. Its reporters are not journalists. And its opinions are not fully thought through." For the Global Edition, Stewart provides an exclusive introductory monologue in front of an audience, usually about the week's prevalent international news story, and closing comments without an audience present. The segments for the Global Edition are usually culled from Monday and Tuesday's episodes.

Westwood One broadcasts small portions of the show to many radio stations across America.

Australia

In Australia the regular show airs on The Comedy Channel Monday to Thursday at 9:30pm, roughly one day behind the US broadcast. The Global Edition airs on CNN on Sundays at 1:30am and is repeated on Mondays at 12:30am. Free-to-air broadcaster SBS also intermittently runs The Global Edition on Thursdays at 10pm and on Sundays at 1:45am.

Canada

In Canada, the program airs four nights a week on the free-to-air CTV stations at 12:05 AM Local time, after the local news. A simulcast of the show also airs at 11:00 PM Eastern and Pacific time (and re-run throughout the day) on The Comedy Network.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Since October 10, 2005, both the Global Edition and the weeknight program have been shown in the UK and Ireland at 8:30pm on the free-to-air digital channel, More4. There are often repeats at around 12:05 a.m., but this is variable. On Fridays, there is usually no repeat. The Global Edition (without the preface shown on CNN International) is shown on Monday, with the regular Monday through Thursday editions shown on a one-day delay Tuesday to Friday. The Global Edition still airs in the UK on CNN International.

Germany

In Germany, the Daily Show will be launched in April 2007 on the German Comedy Central.^[19]

Nordic countries

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is also available in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland & Denmark) at 19:00 (20:00 in Finland) on the CANAL+ (Nordic) channel.

Philippines

In the Philippines, cable channel Jack TV airs The Daily Show at a half-day delay every Tuesday-Friday (given the time difference), alongside other Comedy Central shows.

Israel

In Israel, the global edition airs on the Yes+ satellite channel every Thursday night, with reruns throughout the following weekend.

Other countries

CNN also airs the Global edition in Hungary on weekends. In April 2006, the show began screening in New Zealand at 22:00 Tuesdays on music channel C4. The show airs in Portugal on the Sic Radical (Portuguese) cable channel (it stopped airing for a while in 2006, but viewer feedback made the show be shown again). It can also be seen on the American Forces Network.

[edit] Spin-offs

Main articles: The Colbert Report and Red State Diaries

A spin-off, The Colbert Report, was announced in early May 2005. The show stars Stephen Colbert, and serves as Comedy Central's answer to the programs of media pundits such as Bill O'Reilly. The word "Report" in the show's title, like "Colbert", is pronounced with a silent "t", pronounced similarly to the word rapport. (In response to a question concerning why 'Report' is ponounced with a silent 't', Colbert claims to be saving the letters and is going to donate them to hurricane Katrina victims.) Colbert, Stewart, and Ben Karlin pitched the idea of the show (reportedly with one sentence: "Our version of The O'Reilly Factor with Stephen Colbert") to Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, who agreed to run the show for eight weeks without first creating a pilot. The Colbert Report first aired on October 17, 2005, and takes up the 11:30 UTC-5 slot following The Daily Show. Initial ratings satisfied Comedy Central and the show was renewed for a year.

[edit] Awards

Main article: List of awards won by The Daily Show

[edit] Correspondents, contributors, and staff

The correspondents normally have two roles: "experts" with satirical "senior" titles that Stewart interviews about certain issues, or hosts of original reporting segments which often showcase interviews of serious political figures. The show's contributors have their own unique regular segment on the show.

[edit] Correspondents

• Dan Bakkedahl (2005 to present)
• Samantha Bee (2003 to present) — "Mark Your Calendar", "Are You Prepared?!?", "This Week In God"
• Jason Jones (2005 to present) — "Are You Prepared?!?"
• John Oliver (July 2006 to present) — Senior British correspondent.
• Rob Riggle (September 2006 to present)

[edit] Contributors

• Lewis Black (1996 to present) — "Back in Black"
• Demetri Martin (November 2005 to present) — "Trendspotting"
• Ed Helms (2002 to present) — "Digital Watch", "Ad Nauseum", "Mark Your Calendar", "This Week in God"
• John Hodgman (January 2006 to present) — Resident Expert, "Exper-teasers"
• Dave Gorman (April 2006 to present) — "Poll Smoking"
• Aasif Mandvi (August 2006 to present) — Middle Eastern Affairs Correspondent / Senior Asia Correspondent
• Larry Wilmore (August 2006 to present) — Senior Black Correspondent

[edit] Alumni

Former correspondents and contributors include the following:

• Dave Attell (1999 to 2002) — "The Ugly American"
• Mary Birdsong (2002)
• Michael Blieden (1996 to 1999) — "Ad Nauseum"
• John Bloom (1996-1998) — "God Stuff"
• A. Whitney Brown (1996 to 1998) — "Backfire"
• Rich Brown (1996 to 1998) — "Public Excess"
• Sameer Butt (1997 to 1998)
• Steve Carell (1999 to 2004, occasional pieces in 2005) — "Even Stevphen", "Produce Pete", "Dollars and 'Cents'", "Slimmin' Down With Steve", "Ad Nauseum". In 2005, Steve Carell became the first former Daily Show correspondent to star in a major Hollywood studio film (The 40-Year-Old Virgin). Carell was also the first, and to date only, former correspondent to be the show's featured guest when he promoted The 40-Year-Old Virgin on August 15, 2005; (except for John Hodgman and Dave Gorman who were guests on the show to promote their books before they became contributors). The interview began with a very prolonged, feigned awkward silence, which Stewart ended by gasping out, "Why did you leave us!?" and with feigned crying.
• Stephen Colbert (1997 to 2005) — "Even Stevphen", "This Week In God", "The Jobbing of America". Although no longer a cast member of The Daily Show, Colbert currently appears at the end of every show in a promo for The Colbert Report (usually Colbert previewing the content of his show or quipping with Stewart) , which airs immediately following. In addition, on February 8, 2006, a recurring segment called "Klassic Kolbert" debuted on The Daily Show, consisting of a previously aired segment featuring Colbert.
• Nate Corddry (2005 to 2006). Currently a major actor on Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
• Rob Corddry (2002 to 2006) — "This Week In God", and as he liked to call them, "Poop jokes".
• Frank DeCaro (1996 to 2003) — "Out at the Movies"; he currently hosts his own program on Sirius Satellite Radio and is a celebrity panelist on GSN's revival of I've Got a Secret
• Vance DeGeneres (1999 to 2001) — "Dollars and 'Cents'", "A Tale of Survival"
• Eric Drysdale (2001)
• Adrianne Frost (2002)
• Jon Glaser (2004)
• Rachael Harris (2002 to 2003)
• Laura Kightlinger (1998)
• Andy Kindler (2000) — "TV Guy"
• Beth Littleford (1996 to 2000)
• Jerry Minor (2000)
• David Pompeii (2001)
• Mo Rocca (1998 to 2003) — "Dollars and 'Cents'", "Mark Your Calendar" Rocca went on to parlay his Daily Show persona in numerous cable appearances, such as VH1's I Love the 80s and at the 2004 political conventions for Larry King Live
• Michael Showalter (1996)
• Tom Shillue (1998 to 1999) — "This Week in Hate"
• Denny Siegel (1999)
• Miriam Tolan (2000 to 2001)
• Paul F. Tompkins (1998)
• Brian Unger (1996 to 1998) — "Backfire"; he currently also does commentary for the NPR show Day to Day, VH1's I Love the 70s, I Love the 80s, and I Love the 90s incarnations and is also a frequent guest host on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
• David Wain (1996)
• Nancy Walls (1999 to 2002) — "Dollars and 'Cents' Money Bunny," also married to fellow correspondent Steve Carell
• Matt Walsh (2001 to 2002) — "Dollars and 'Cents'"
• Lauren Weedman (2001 to 2002)
• Bob Wiltfong (2004 to 2005)
• Lizz Winstead (1996 to 1997)
• Stacey Grenrock-Woods (1999 to 2003)

[edit] Writing staff

The Daily Show writing staff, as of May 2006:

• David Javerbaum Head Writer
• Rachel Axler
• Kevin Bleyer
• Steve Bodow
• Rich Blomquist
• Tim Carvell
• J.R. Havlan
• Scott Jacobson
• Ben Karlin
• Rob Kutner
• Sam Means
• Jason Reich
• Jason Ross
• Jon Stewart

[edit] Other staff

• Bill Clarey (1982 - December 10, 2005) was a 23-year-old staff member who worked as an intern for The Daily Show and receptionist for Comedy Central. Bill committed suicide on December 10, 2005, prompting the network to suspend production of its show [1] the following Monday night. That Monday's episode was to have Howard Stern as a guest, but after Bill's death, Comedy Central aired a repeat. On Tuesday, December 14, 2005, Stern appeared as the guest, and the Moment of Zen was dedicated to Bill, with a short clip from his favorite show, Dynasty.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart official website
• The Daily Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Daily Show at TV.com
• TDS NewsHunter 2: Beat the Press (TDS game)
• The Daily Show episode reviews at TVSquad.com
• Turning Fake News Into Real Careers, Newsweek (Feb. 13, 2006 issue)

The Daily Show v • d • e
Hosts:	Craig Kilborn • Jon Stewart
People:	Correspondents • Guests • Notable guests
Special series:	Indecision 2000 • Indecision 2004 • Midwest Midterm Midtacular: Battlefield Ohio
Spin-offs:	The Colbert Report • Red State Diaries
Other:	America (The Book) • Awards • Recurring elements

Late night talk and comedy shows in the U.S.
CBS: Late Show | Late Late Show
NBC: Tonight Show | Late Night | Last Call
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live
Fox: Talkshow
Comedy Central: The Daily Show | The Colbert Report