TVSquad

He should take Conan's spot. The fanbase for that timeslot has a general crossover, and he's hilarious. Hell, he could do an expanded version of the daily show.

Reply

the two hours of conan and stewart would hit that 18-45 demo straight through the heart. especially if it was going to happen in two years, the move wouldn't be that painful.

Reply

Conan followed by Stewart? HELL YEAH!

Though I do love the Stewart/Colbert combo.

Reply

Of course he could do it and he'd be great, but I'd hate to see him leave cable and do a more main-stream show.

Reply

I really don't see Stewart wanting to follow Conan at this point in his career. With the buzz he has I think he'd be considered more a replacement for Letterman.

Reply

I've always believed the Letterman/CBS camp will do one of two things:

(1) Find a way to "steal" Conan from NBC to replace Letterman; or

(2) Sign Stewart to replace Letterman

Les Moonves will accept nothing short of greatness from his staff (and from himself) when they consider the future of "The Late Show", so ....

Reply

Jon has the coolest job in television and at the same time he is the only one who could do it in such a cool way. If he bails to the networks, he would have to compromise to appeal to the little old lady and republican crowd. Now he can shoot from the hip and get away with it. But networks worry about offending anybody so they would start to play with his routine or they would cancel him after a month like they do every good show they try to put together.

Look at the Bill Maher example. When his show as a throw away Comedy Central show, it was funny, goofy, comedic and controversial. As soon as he jumped to networks, Maher turned into Rosie and above all, stopped being funny. Before long, he offended the little old ladies and he was gone. No Jon, stay right where you are and keeping pissing off the Bush administration. You are doing for the rest of us whom they are ignoring.

Reply

Jimmy Fallon was on Howard Stern this morning saying that NBC has signed him to a holding deal where he would presumably take over the Conan slot if Conan became the new host of "The Tonight Show." Do with that what you will...

Reply

I was going to post something, but jmalcolm used my example of Bill Maher, and I agree with what he said.

If Stewart wants to do something different from what he's done, something more traditionally late night, then he might move. But if he wants to continue to do "The Daily Show" or something a lot like it, being the big fish in the small pond that is basic cable is his best bet.

Reply

It would be terrible if Stewart were to take Conan's place - it's too late a slot for most 9-5 people to watch. Sure he'd have the greatness of hosting network primetime TV but he'd lose countless viewers in that timeslot. Plus he's great for a half hour, I don't know if he'd be as entertaining for a whole hour (or 46 minutes w/commercials, or something).

Reply

Jon Stewart would be so neutered on network TV that it wouldn't even be funny.

Reply

"No Jon, stay right where you are and keeping pissing off the Bush administration."

How would he do that after 2008? There won't be a Bush administration and that's when his contract is up.

I became a fan of Jon's from his old MTV talk show and later his stints as guest host for Tom Snyder. While I love "Daily Show"-Jon, as I'm a pretty political person and think he's brilliant in the position, I'm a fan of comedy and late night TV overall, and think he definitely should make the move to either NBC or CBS over the next few years.

Then Colbert can get the earlier time slot and eventually take over the world.

Reply

"I think we need someone like him on late night again (in a non-political talk show)"

Great idea, except that "someone like him" wouldn't BE "someone like him" unless he WERE him. And HE wouldn't BE "him" unless he were to be HIMSELF.

It's like saying "Let's get someone like Jackie Gleason, only skinny". Or "Let's get someone like Lucille Ball, only with no physical comedy and no red hair". Or, "Let's get some birds, but please, no feathers!"

This is how we in America keep winding up with awful entertainment and phonies for leaders.

Reply

Funny how few of you recall that Stewart already tried this. He didn't fly. Like many others, Stewart's humor works fine in the small, cloistered world of cable but as he's proven already: Americans don't embrace him on a wide scale.

People brought up Maher - well Maher did the same thing as Stewart: cable, then network and back to cable. On HBO Maher can have the show he wants.

Another example? Dennis Miller burned as a late night guy, moved to HBO and had huge success.

Stewart used to fill in for Tom Snyder (remember him?) on CBS when Snyder fell ill in the 90s. Stewart was at ease and very good but in the end he opted for the world of Cable.

Stewart is a big, big star on Comedy Central. He and Colbert rule the roost. There exists no reason to leave. He's done network before and it didn't work out.

Reply

If Jon Stewart really is close to joining NBC, Conan is gone, gone, gone. I've mentioned it before on this site:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/05/22/fans-asked-to-help-leno-celebrate-fifteen-years/#c5024042

but at the time (and before then in other places) I had no clue that NBC would so badly want to get rid of Conan they'd be willing to pay him $40 million just to go away. I would imagine that payout might include a no-compete clause, so we might see Conan's name in writing credits, or perhaps some movie career attempt. Or even running for parliment in Finland. But not on TV.

And that's a good thing.

Reply

I suspect this is more a defensive move more to keep Stewart from going to CBS or ABC than anything to do with Conan O'Brien.

Letterman won't be around forever, Jimmy Kimmel is funny but has low ratings, and Jon Stewart could fill either of those spots.

Reply

Re:

"Les Moonves will accept nothing short of greatness from his staff (and from himself) when they consider the future of "The Late Show", so ....

Les has gutted that company, so I guess his best is turning NBC into the joke of the big 3. Hell, they're some cable shows that are giving them a run for their money. Of course Katie "sunshine" isn't much better, but at least CBS props her up with some decent PT shows. And for those of you that stated, "yeah, he should stay sticking it to Bush", no one cares. If Bush listened to any of the loon jobs out there, he'd have turned the country over to a Syrian/Iran terrorist coop, run by Ted Kennedy in between benders and car drownings. Face it loons, when you try to weaken our country, you are supporting the terrorists goals. Which statement is more accurate? 25% of Muslims support suicide bombers. Or ,75 percent reject Islamic extremism. NBC and the "Times chose 75 percent because 25 helped the GOP. They turned it into a positive story lol. Don't want to SCARE people, except when the war stories further their "cause" and/or undermine our troops. I wonder why they have no validity any more?

Reply

I don't want him to leave the political parody, or even political, type show. The Daily Show is one of the best shows on television right now, it's something I watch whenever it is on. Even though he isn't the original host I couldn't imagine the show (in it's current format) without him.

Of course if he did decide to leave I wouldn't want him doing a talk show. I'd want him diong something political, not something where he talks about current events with a quriky band side kick. That's just not the Jon Stewart I love.

Reply

Stewart already had a talk show and it got canceled. Why would he want to do that again? (Although I wouldn't mind seeing "Talkshow Jon" segments again)

Reply