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 Jon Stewart leaving 
 
 Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," will step down later this year, the president of the network confirmed in a statement to the On Media blog Tuesday. 
 
 “For the better part of the last two decades, I have had the incredible honor and privilege of working with Jon Stewart. His comedic brilliance is second to none," Michele Ganeless, president of Comedy Central, said in a statement. 
 
 "Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera," Ganeless continued. "Through his unique voice and vision, ‘The Daily Show’ has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come." 
 
 (POLITICO Video: Jon Stewart announces 'Daily Show' departure) 
 
 "Jon will remain at the helm of ‘The Daily Show’ until later this year," she wrote. "He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family.” 
 
 Stewart, who became host of "The Daily Show" in 1999, has had an immeasurable influence on American politics and satire. Under his leadership, "The Daily Show" has also spawned the creation of influential Comedy Central shows like "The Colbert Report" and "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore," as well as HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver." 
 
 Stewart also announced his forthcoming departure during Tuesday's taping of "The Daily Show," which airs tonight at 11 p.m. EST. 
 
 (POLITICO Video: The career highlights of Jon Stewart) 
 
 UPDATE (11:40 p.m.): At the end of Tuesday night's episode of "The Daily Show," Stewart addressed his departure, noting that the show and audience do not deserve "a restless host" and that the specifics of his departure have not been worked out but that it will occur before September: 
 
 Doug Herzog and Michele Ganeless gave me an incredible opportunity 17 years ago to pilot this wonderful franchise, and 17 years is the longest I have ever in my life held a job, by 16 years and five months. Thank you. The upshot there being, I am a terrible employee. In my heart, I know it is time for someone else to have that opportunity. ... Not right away, we’re still working out details; I’m up in September, might be December or July. I don’t have a lot of specific plans; I’ve got a lot of ideas, a lot of things in my head. I’m going to have dinner on a school night with my family, who I have heard from multiple sources are lovely people. I’m not going to be here and try to sum up what this place has meant to me over the years. I couldn’t do that, we’ve got plenty of time, and I’ve got myriad of people to thank … but this show doesn’t deserve an even slightly restless host, and neither do you. I don’t think I’m going to miss being on TV every day; I’m going to miss coming here every day. I love the people here, they’re the best, they’re collaborative and they’re kind. … I love them and respect them so much. It’s been an absolute privilege. The honor of my professional life. I thank you for watching it, for hate-watching it, whatever reason you’re turning in for. You get in this business with the idea that maybe you have a point of view and something to express. And to receive feedback from that is the greatest feeling I can ask for, and I thank you. 
 
 Hadas Gold contributed to this report. ||||| 1 of 26 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Jon Stewart leaves ‘The Daily Show’ View Photos After 16 years on ‘The Daily Show,’ Jon Stewart has departed. Caption After 16 years on ‘The Daily Show,’ Jon Stewart has departed. Nov. 30, 2011 Jon Stewart is seen on stage during a taping of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" in New York. Brad Barket/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 UPDATED: 
 
 Jon Stewart, who pushed political comedy into a new realm with a show that relayed news by parodying the news, will leave “The Daily Show” later this year after 16 years at the helm, Comedy Central announced Tuesday night. 
 
 To a younger generation of viewers who stopped watching network news, his late-night “fake” news show — which particularly delighted in skewering politicians and the media — made him a trusted messenger to millions. 
 
 [Here’s how Jon Stewart told “The Daily Show" audience he’s stepping down] 
 
 Since its launch with Stewart as host — he took over the program in 1999 from Craig Kilborn — “The Daily Show” has routinely racked up awards. It won the outstanding variety series Emmy for 10 years in a row. 
 
 Stewart, 52, who often emphasized that he is a comedian rather than a news anchor, truly made his mark during the 2000 presidential election with his “Indecision 2000” coverage of the George W. Bush and Al Gore recount in Florida. Afterward, everything on the show clicked, and Stewart emerged as the star of the comedy network — especially during the Bush administration, when the stentorian and seemingly exasperated host would take on the policies of Bush, vice president Dick Cheney and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. 
 
 Stewart broke the news of his departure to his audience during the show’s taping in New York. Almost immediately on social media, the tweets started from people who witnessed the announcement. One of them was David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Obama: 
 
 Just had the honor of being the great Jon Stewart's guest on @TheDailyShow, where he announced he's leaving. Emotional night. #jonstewart — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 11, 2015 
 
 Over the years, Stewart’s team of deadpan “correspondents” also became comedy stars, including Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Steve Carell, Larry Wilmore, Ed Helms, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones. Colbert went on to star on “The Colbert Report” for nearly a decade before departing in December to take over for late-night veteran David Letterman on CBS. 
 
 [Jon Stewart’s hardest truth – The time has come to wrap up the joke] 
 
 “The Daily Show’s” steady rise coincided with the popularity of Internet video, as clips from Stewart’s broadcast frequently circulated on the Web the following day. They often featured him mocking the 24-hour cable news cycle, and he became known for taking aim at Fox News Channel and CNN. As such, Stewart became a serious pundit in his own right — albeit one who amply punctuated his commentary with expletives. 
 
 “Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera,” the network said in a statement Tuesday. “Through his unique voice and vision, ‘The Daily Show’ has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come.” 
 
 A darling of liberals, Stewart made headlines for his ongoing self-proclaimed “feud” with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, which culminated in a live debate called “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” in 2012. 
 
 Stewart’s impact could also be measured off-screen. His 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington brought hundreds of thousands to the Mall to see Stewart and his fellow Comedy Central star Colbert take the stage and encourage people to participate in politics and civil discourse despite the seemingly hopeless partisan gridlock in Washington. 
 
 [Act Four: Pop culture needs Jon Stewart now more than ever] 
 
 As for “The Daily Show,” some suspected that Stewart’s departure appeared imminent last summer when he took three months off to direct a feature film, “Rosewater,” about journalist Maziar Bahari’s imprisonment in Iran. 
 
 In an interview with The Washington Post in November, Stewart wouldn’t discuss future career plans other than joking that they included “a nap.” He also dismissed the suggestion that he would run for political office, and laughingly shot down the idea that people — even those who see him as a trusted figure — would vote for him. 
 
 “You don’t know that,” he said, “except in the way that people would vote for a second-string quarterback to take over for the first-string quarterback if they are feeling frustration at their team’s goals.” 
 
 The specific timing of Stewart’s departure was not announced. The network statement said only that the host would leave “later this year.” His contract expires in the fall. 
 
 Losing a marquee host is a tough loss for Comedy Central, though the statement made sure to note that the program — which regularly attracts about a million viewers a night — “will endure for years to come.” 
 
 It is the latest in a long line of changes in the Comedy Central late-night lineup. Besides Colbert’s departure, John Oliver — who at one point appeared to be Stewart’s likely successor — also left last year to host the breakout hit “Last Week Tonight” on HBO. Larry Wilmore, also a potential hosting option as a “Daily Show” standout, recently started his own “Nightly Show” on the network, replacing Colbert. 
 
 [Why Jon Stewart and Brian Williams should just switch jobs] 
 
 Here’s Comedy Central’s full statement: 
 
 RELATED 
 
 Video: Late-night laughs ||||| Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Comedy Central Jon Stewart, who helped turn "The Daily Show" into a cultural force, is leaving the anchor's chair after nearly 17 years. 
 
 Comedy Central confirmed the news on Twitter: 
 
 According to the AV Club, Stewart announced he was leaving the show at the beginning of the taping for Tuesday's episode. Stewart will continue hosting the show until "later this year." 
 
 Stewart, 52, started hosting "The Daily Show" in January 1999, taking over for Craig Kilborn. Since then, the show has won 20 prime-time Emmys. 
 
 The late-night show became appointment television with Stewart as host, and he emerged as both a leading political satirist and one of toughest interviewers in the news media. 
 
 Jon Stewart with former President Bill Clinton on "The Daily Show" in 2004. Peter Kramer/Getty Images 
 
 In 2008, The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani wondered whether Stewart was in fact "the most trusted man in America." But Stewart had turned to other projects outside of the show recently, directing his first feature film, "Rosewater," last year. 
 
 In a statement, Michele Ganeless, the president of Comedy Central, said she thought the show could outlast Stewart. 
 
 "Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera," Ganeless wrote in a statement, according to Politico. "Through his unique voice and vision, 'The Daily Show' has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come." 
 
 Jon Stewart during live Election Night coverage on Nov. 2, 2004. Frank Micelotta/Getty Images It is unclear what Stewart will do after leaving "The Daily Show." 
 
 But he has numerous other high-profile credits outside of the show. In addition to directing "Rosewater," a dramatic film about the detention of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari during Iran's election protests in 2009, Stewart starred as a version of himself in the critically acclaimed "The Larry Sanders Show" in the mid-1990s. 
 
 Stewart on an episode of "The Larry Sanders Show." The Larry Sanders Show screencap One of Stewart's most memorable moments came outside of the context of "The Daily Show," when he appeared on "Crossfire" in 2004 and sparred with host Tucker Carlson on cable news' allegedly malign impact on American political discourse. 
 
 Stewart also emerged as a forceful proponent for Bassem Youssef, an Egyptian satirist curtailed by Egypt's post-Arab Spring rulers. 
 
 He used "The Daily Show" to advocate a bill that would pay medical benefits for first responders from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that nearly fell victim to Congressional gridlock. Stewart has deep cultural reach and distinct interviewing and directing talents. 
 
 He is a nearly singular media and cultural figure, and it will be interesting to see what he does once he has left a show that he has anchored since the Clinton administration was in power. 
 
 Jon Stewart on set of "The Daily Show," warming up the crowd in April 2005. Scott Gries/Getty Images In November, Stewart speculated to NPR's Terry Gross about what it would be like to leave "The Daily Show," and he implied that the idea held some appeal for him: "I do feel like I don't know that there will ever be anything that I will ever be as well suited for as this show," Stewart said. "That being said, I think there are moments when you realize that that's not enough anymore, or that maybe it's time for some discomfort." 
 
 Watch Stewart make the announcement below: ||||| America 
 
 Jon Stewart Will Leave 'The Daily Show' This Year 
 
 i itoggle caption Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images 
 
 Update: 12:30 a.m. ET Wednesday 
 
 
 
 Stewart closed Tuesday night's episode of The Daily Show with discussion of his pending departure. 
 
 "Seventeen years is the longest I have ever — in my life — held a job, by 16 years and five months," Stewart said. "The upshot there being, I am a terrible employee. ... 
 
 "We're still working out details, I'm up in September, I'm up around then, might be December, might be July ... I don't have any specific plans. Got a lotta ideas, I got a lot of things in my head. I'm gonna have dinner — on a school night! — with my family, who I have heard from multiple sources are lovely people. 
 
 "This show doesn't deserve an even slightly restless host, and neither do you. I don't think I'm going to miss on television every day — I'm gonna miss coming here every day ... I love the people here, they're the best. They're creative and collaborative and kind." 
 
 "It's been an absolute privilege. It's been the honor of my professional life." 
 
 Original Post 
 
 Jon Stewart, the comedian who has become a highly influential figure in American politics, is leaving The Daily Show sometime this year. 
 
 Stewart let the news slip during this evening's taping of the show. 
 
 Fittingly, The A.V. Club, a real-news spin-off of The Onion, first reported the news and Comedy Central confirmed it, saying Stewart would step down "later this year." 
 
 "Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera," Michele Ganeless, Comedy Central's president, said in a statement. "Through his unique voice and vision, The Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come. Jon will remain at the helm of 'The Daily Show' until later this year. He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family." 
 
 The A.V. Club quoted audience members saying Stewart said he was "retiring." 
 
 Comedy Central's other towering figure of political satire, Stephen Colbert, ended his own run on The Colbert Report, last year. 
 
 Colbert is taking over for David Letterman in September. 
 
 Billed as "the most trusted name in fake news," Stewart has been hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central in 1999. Despite its irreverence and its sometimes cutting humor, the show has attracted the most prominent of American political figures seeking to woo a younger demographic. 
 
 Everyone from Presidents Obama and Clinton to Gen. Colin Powell and Sen. John McCain have appeared on the show with Stewart. 
 
 In a recent Pew study, 12 percent of respondents said they had gotten political news from the program. That compares to 12 percent who answered USA Today and 10 percent who answered The Wall Street Journal. ||||| “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” will call it a day after Thursday’s episode. 
 
 Comedy Central has canceled the half-hour series that replaced “The Colbert Report” on Jan. 19, 2015, making “Nightly” the first of the recent wave of late-night newcomers to shutter. 
 
 Wilmore informed his staff of the cabler’s decision Monday afternoon. 
 
 In the near term, Comedy Central will slide Chris Hardwick’s pop culture quiz show “@Midnight” to the 11:30 p.m. slot that follows “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” 
 
 Comedy Central president Kent Alterman said the decision was made because “Nightly” had failed to gain ratings traction with the cabler’s core demo of young adults, nor were there positive signs for the show in key social media metrics. Alterman made a point of praising Wilmore and the distinctive approach he brought to commenting on the day’s news. 
 
 “We hold Larry in the highest esteem, personally and professionally. He brought a strong voice and point of view to the late-night landscape,” Alterman told Variety. “Unfortunately it hasn’t resonated with our audience.” 
 
 Related Larry Wilmore on White House Correspondents’ Dinner Speech: ‘I Knew It’d Be Controversial’ 
 
 Alterman called it a “business decision” to pull the plug. 
 
 “We’ve been monitoring it closely as for a year and a half now and we haven’t seen the signs we need in ratings or in consumption on digital platforms. We’ve been been hoping it would grow,” Alterman said. 
 
 Wilmore didn’t hide his disappointment in having to bring the show to an abrupt end this week, particularly before the climax of the presidential race that has yielded so much material. 
 
 “I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity,” Wilmore said in a statement. “But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.” 
 
 Comedy Central is developing a project with “Daily Show” contributor Jordan Klepper that could be a potential successor to “Nightly” in the post-“Daily Show” slot. But Alterman said it was unlikely that any new program would be set before the start of the year. 
 
 “The next step is to open our doors to aggressive development in late night,” he said. They may well consider shows that are a departure from the “Colbert” and “Nightly” format focusing on topical news. 
 
 “We’re open to novel, creative, interesting ideas,” Alterman said. “I wouldn’t anticipate it being a scripted show. It needs to feel a part of our late-night landscape. But we’re very open and excited by the idea of someone we’re not even thinking about coming in the door. We’re really just trying to be open-minded about all possibilities.” Those possibilities include “@Midnight” earning its way to taking over the 11:30 p.m. timeslot on a permanent basis, he said. 
 
 Wilmore had been a regular presence on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for years before Comedy Central tapped him in May 2014 to fill the void left by Stephen Colbert’s departure for CBS. Wilmore’s show, which bowed a month after Colbert’s sign off in December 2014, was originally titled “Minority Report with Larry Wilmore” but changed its moniker because the Fox network had a drama series in the works with the same title (based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie). 
 
 From the beginning, Wilmore brought an analytical as well as comedic spin to the day’s headlines. The show included a regular roundtable segment that featuring a mix of comedians, pundits, journalists and newsmakers discussing generally weighty subjects. Those segments were praised for offering a clear-eyed take on social, cultural and political issues that went beyond one-liners or the shouting matches found in other news roundtable shows. Wilmore also drew strong reviews for his commentary on racial politicking in the presidential race and horrifying acts of violence, from the slayings in San Bernardino, Calif., last year to the recent string of racially charged police shooting incidents. 
 
 “Nightly Show” premiered less than a month before Stewart announced his plan to step down as “Daily Show” host. Wilmore opened to nearly 1 million viewers but didn’t sustain that audience. After Stewart bowed out on Aug. 6, 2015, “Nightly Show” struggled with the smaller lead-in as Noah took the reins from Stewart. 
 
 In the past few months, “Daily Show” has seen an uptick particularly among the younger viewers that matter most to Comedy Central. In the second quarter of this year, “Daily Show” averaged 278,000 viewers in the adults 18-34 demo, second only to NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (364,000). “Nightly Show” averaged 153,000 viewers in that demo. 
 
 Given the importance of “Daily Show” franchise to Comedy Central, it’s no surprise that the cabler would devote more energy and resources to promoting Noah rather than “Nightly.” 
 
 Alterman hailed Wilmore and his production team for their willingness to be collaborative and to experiment with the show. 
 
 “We applaud Larry and his team for evolving the show,” he said. “They created a community of contributors who were doing great comedy bits that were seamlessly woven into the show. As much as we thought ‘Nightly’ was evolving creatively it just wasn’t resonating with our audience.” 
 
 As the curtain falls on “Nightly,” Wilmore’s immediate focus will be on his work as a writer and showrunner, which took a backseat to his “Nightly” hosting and producing duties during the past 20 months. Wilmore is juggling numerous projects at present. He’s the co-creator and exec producer with Issa Rae of the upcoming HBO comedy “Insecure,” and he was instrumental in the launch of ABC’s “Black-ish” in the 2014-15 season. ||||| Photo illustration by Holly Allen. Photos by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, and Brad Barket/Comedy Central. 
 
 In mid-January, with Bernie Sanders surging in the polls in Iowa, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah decided it was time to formally introduce Sanders to its audience. Sanders officially declared his candidacy this past May and has been squarely in the public eye for months now, his positions, politics, unkempt hair, and Brooklyn accent dissected all over cable news and razzed by every late-night show in the land (including The Daily Show). Still, Noah supposed its viewers “might be wondering [about] this rising new, yet old, force in the Democratic Party.” 
 
 Then Noah launched into “The Legend of Bernie Sanders,” a relatively straightforward, jokey synopsis of Sanders’ accomplishments, from his birth in Brooklyn to his election as senator, climaxing in his album of folk songs. “If you ask me personally,” Noah said, “Bernie Sanders’ popularity has nothing to do with policy. I think it’s because he’s opposite Trump. See, the world craves balance. He’s the yin to Trump’s racist yang.” Noah concluded by pointing out that both Trump and Sanders regularly commit New York–style assaults on the pronunciation of the word huge. The segment was a précis of Noah’s Daily Show so far: something that looks like The Daily Show, that mugs and winks like The Daily Show, but that has only a diluted point of view. 
 
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 If you suspect that there is something more substantial to say about Sanders than that he talks funny, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart agrees. Stewart’s Daily Show did a segment on Sanders when he first announced his candidacy in May. It began with a clip reel of pundits disparaging Sanders as a whack job, as Stewart, talking fast, his voice pitched high, breathlessly ranted, “If Salvador Dalí and Dr. Seuss had a child and that child was raised by schizophrenic howler monkeys, it would be Bernie Sanders. Give me a taste of this crazy wacko cuckoo bird,” throwing to a clip of a Sanders sharing his policy positions, which include pay equity for women, campaign finance reform, and expanded social security. “What a … rational, slightly left-of-center mainstream politician,” Stewart said. “Bernie [isn’t] a crazy-pants cuckoo bird, it’s that we’ve all become so accustomed to stage-managed focus-group–driven candidates that authenticity comes across as lunacy.” 
 
 This segment was taped in May, when Sanders’ campaign seemed like a hippie fantasy and Trump’s candidacy the fever dream of a feral child raised on nothing but reruns of The Apprentice, Rambo, and Dave. Yet it’s astute about the connection between Sanders and Trump, while also being prescient about why both have turned out to be viable candidates: One voter’s lunatic is another’s truth teller. Trevor Noah, comparing Sanders and Trump, called out their devotion to silent h’s simply to make a joke. But Stewart, without even trying, illuminated why those h’s are more than merely funny: To many Americans, those are the silent h’s of authenticity. 
 
 Trevor Noah has been in the hosting chair for four months now, and his show has settled into a groove. If you tune into any episode, you will find something familiar enough, good for a chuckle but never a belly laugh, let alone a revelation. Noah could hardly be more charming; he is at ease in front of the camera, generous with his dimples. The writing staff, sans former head writer Elliott Kalan and Jo Miller, who left for Samantha Bee’s forthcoming new series, remained after Stewart’s departure, staving off any overt catastrophes.* Noah’s Daily Show has been attracting fewer than 1 million viewers in the all-important 18–49 demo, down more than 30 percent compared with Stewart’s last quarter. (Though not compared with his last year, in which Stewart’s demo ratings were roughly comparable. Stewart’s total viewership was significantly higher than Noah’s.) But if you watch The Daily Show night after night, you get the sense that the writers have adjusted their tactics for a very different kind of host—a Potemkin Jon Stewart, someone smooth and ingratiating who is reaching for unconverted viewers, instead of an inveterate political satirist preaching to the deeply informed. 
 
 If you watch The Daily Show night after night, you get the sense that the writers have adjusted their tactics for a very different kind of host. 
 
 In theory, I am the exact kind of person the new Daily Show is targeting (well, besides my gender and age, since The Daily Show is targeting 20-year-old men): a thirtysomething who cares about politics but doesn’t follow them that closely, not saturated in the details of the campaign trail but open to a sharp-tongued and eagle-eyed guide through a particularly internecine primary season. And yet I have found The Daily Show milquetoast and broad, diverting in the soothing way I associate with the Jimmys of network late night. On Trevor Noah’s Daily Show, outrages are an occasion for bemused laughter, not righteously funny indignation. 
 
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 As we head into a presidential election totally different from any election we’ve seen before, one all but tailored for The Daily Show, there is a Daily Show–shaped hole in the culture, despite a lesser version of the show airing every weeknight. Between Cruz’s authoritarian smarm, Hillary’s striving for the human touch, and the racist extravaganza that is Trump, American politics have never been more in need of puncturing by The Daily Show’s exasperated logic. But Noah backs away from thorny issues like they are bombs that can be defused with a charming quip. He’s out to neutralize, not to awaken. How did the program devoted to scaling bullshit mountain in all its incarnations, the program that once had a gospel choir sing “Go fuck yourself” to a Fox News correspondent, come to feel so beside the point? 
 
 * * * 
 
 At its best, The Daily Show is cathartic. It has served a real sociopolitical end by dragging the most offensive, inane, and ridiculous aspects of our politics under the bright lights and laughing at them with intelligence and wit and lowbrow goofiness. The Daily Show is an activist joker, deflating gasbags and ridiculing the sanctimonious status quo, so that instead of suffering through it alone, we can laugh at it together. 
 
 Stewart turned himself gray trying to rain sanity, silliness, and outrage on the hypocrisy, mendacity, and idiocy that is our political discourse. For his effort and his anger, he was rewarded with trust and love, a fake newsman who became more indispensible than a real one. Where Stewart allowed himself to be a divining rod for the news, to feel it all and lose his cool accordingly, Noah is always smooth and telegenic, easy in his manner and on the eyes, never worked up, never letting things get too dark. The daft tweets that got Noah into so much trouble before he even took over The Daily Show seemed to presage a clumsy and unsubtle host, one who would say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But Tweetgate proved to be a red herring. Noah’s problem is not that he makes bad jokes but that he doesn’t take more chances to make great ones. All bloodless finesse, he never goes for the jugular. 
 
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 Consider Noah’s coverage of Obama’s recent State of the Union, in which he explained: “Typically a State of the Union is when a president lays out his agenda for the year to come,” just one of the moments when The Daily Show’s attempts to expand its demographic suggest it’s imagining an audience who might know nothing about politics at all. Noah often makes toothless jokes about physical appearances, from El Chapo’s bad shirt to a guy who looked like a “wizard” at a recent Democratic debate. The sight of one bespectacled tween in the crowd during the SOTU sent Noah on a reverie about an imaginary sitcom called “Senator Kid.” It was not a particularly funny flight of fancy, and it provided no analysis of the State of the Union. As Noah reached the end of the bit, perhaps sensing that it hadn’t gone over that well, he put his charm to work, scrunching up his nose and giggling hard. “I’m sorry, I can really see the show,” he shrugged. 
 
 In the runup to Noah’s stewardship, The Daily Show announced that it would be moving away from its staple under Stewart: media criticism and, in particular, the relentless skewering of Stewart’s bête noir and raison d’etre, Fox News. This made sense. Stewart, with an assist from Stephen Colbert, had spent more than a decade slicing and dicing the cable news industry. His eviscerations were still widely popular with The Daily Show audience and the morning-after viral-video crowd, but they were old news, thanks in large part to Stewart’s own work. Now, instead of covering the coverage of the news, Noah covers the news itself, but this straightforward approach places The Daily Show in a crowded field full of people who are more experienced and engaged than Noah, including Colbert, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore, and soon enough, Samantha Bee. 
 
 Photo illustration by Holly Allen. Photos by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, and Brad Barket/Comedy Central. 
 
 Compare Noah’s approach to that of Wilmore, a Daily Show expat who is now the host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show and who has a more eggheady—and earnest—vibe. Last week, The Daily Show and The Nightly Show, which air back to back, both ran segments about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, The Daily Show two nights after The Nightly Show. The segments were similar and strong. Noah took an uncharacteristically heartfelt beat to observe that “this is people’s lives,” before working his way to his punch line. Observing that the crisis could have been avoided for $100 a day, he said, “I want to call out to all my friends in Africa, because my friends, for only $100 a day, we can save a village in America,” using Noah’s own biography to skewer America’s ludicrous exceptionalism. 
 
 But next to Wilmore’s take on Flint, Noah’s was distant. Even when talking about something as outrageous as what happened in Flint, Noah tends to seem remote and jokey, rather than genuinely curious. Wilmore’s discussion of Flint was longer, more detailed, and more didactic, making Noah’s segment look funnier and fleet-footed by comparison—until the climax. That’s when Wilmore dove furiously in. “When you have politicians fall all over each other to see who can make the most draconian budget cuts,” Wilmore said, “you get decisions like this: citizens poisoned in a mania to save 100 fucking dollars a day. Officials in Flint, Michigan, should all be rounded up and put behind bars.” 
 
 As we head into a presidential election all but tailored for The Daily Show, there is a Daily Show–shaped hole in the culture. 
 
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 This sort of outraged advocacy was a staple of Stewart’s tenure on The Daily Show, and Noah does not, as of yet, seem to have it in him. How could Noah feel as passionate about the intricacies of the American political system as Jon Stewart, or any American? He just got here. Distance can be a good thing for satirists—John Oliver, for instance, has clearly figured out how to leverage his non-Americanness as a way to make his perspective on U.S. politics feel even sharper and more objective. But The Daily Show hasn’t decided whether to play up Noah’s outsider perspective or to pretend it doesn’t exist. 
 
 In one recent segment, Noah went from not knowing Dwight D. Eisenhower was dead to casually name-dropping Rudy Giuliani. He is flabbergasted by our news (understandably) rather than exercised about it. He recently played the rube across from correspondent Jessica Williams, psyched to see some ridiculous and insane campaign ads, leaving her with the meatier job of explaining how malevolent they really are. (Noah’s learning curve has given his correspondents, who include Williams and standouts Jordan Klepper and Roy Wood Jr., space to shine, often taking a more explanatory role than their host.) 
 
 Playing naïve has also undermined Noah in the role he seemed positioned to do best: bring his outsider status and own personal history to bear on American racial politics. On the subject of race, he’s proven himself to be an astute observer who can deliver hard truths in a brightly appealing way. His most successful bit to date was the inspired observation that Donald Trump is an African dictator, which contextualizes Trump, while demystifying Africa, all while being hilarious. Noah and the writers have integrated more racial humor and commentary into the show than it had before, to say nothing of dramatically diversifying the series’ guests. Race is mentioned in nearly every episode, sometimes in unexpected ways, as in a riff about an app that can ask questions of the Founding Fathers: When Thomas Jefferson gets a look at Noah, he freaks out: “Holy shit, it’s a negro!” 
 
 And yet on the subject of race, as with everything else, Noah often eases up, instead of going in. Early in his tenure, while introducing a segment called “Are All Cops Racist?” with Wood Jr. and Klepper, Noah noted that when it comes to perceptions of the police, “It really does seem like there’s no common ground. It’s as if this whole issue is just black and …” he tapered off, as his face lit up with an epiphany. But instead of saying the obvious “white,” he proclaimed, “It’s a cookie!” On screen, an image of that deli staple, the black-and-white cookie, popped up. “The problem is a cookie,” Noah said. This might be good for a dopey laugh if it were paired with some scathing analysis from Noah instead of his correspondents, but without it, it just seems embarrassingly simplistic, an empty joke. 
 
 Noah is being held to a high standard, not of Jon Stewart when he started, but Jon Stewart when he finished. You can see the burden of this expectation in the episode taped after the Paris shootings. Noah—in what is only a Daily Show hosting requirement because Stewart made it so—took a moment at the top of the episode to say a few serious words. His speech, about appreciating everyday moments, felt like a forced entreaty to empathy: stumbling and clichéd, sincere but unsoothing, something he was supposed to do. Stewart could be self-righteous and defensive and smug. But he was a masterful modulator of tone, mirroring the emotional mood of his viewers, evincing anger when appropriate but also empathy and exasperation and joy. Noah hasn’t yet learned to display this kind of range. Being required to prematurely mimic it forces him to play audience proxy, poorly. 
 
 In the geologic time with which late-night shows are judged relative to other television, the four months Noah has been in charge of The Daily Show is nothing. Making a late-night show work is widely understood to be a lengthy and arduous process. The show only recently updated its theme song, which now opens with a Timbaland-produced groove, instead of the familiar guitar-rock chug. Though the whole late-night landscape—Colbert, Oliver, Wilmore—is full of Stewart descendants who excel at exactly the kind of intensive, impassioned argumentation and analysis that Noah has been wanly simulating, Noah will have time to figure out his point of view and his writers time to figure out how to maximize his particular skills. But in the meantime, we’re left with a dulled Daily Show shedding relevancy in the midst of a wild and urgent election. Just think of the campaign insanities that have happened in the last week alone: Fiorina stealing off with a group of toddlers for a photo op, Rubio’s heterosexual panic, the National Review’s last gasp to shred Trump. Not so long ago, we would have learned of these bizarre happenings and thought, “I can’t wait to see what The Daily Show has to say about this.” Now, it’s only likely to have the eighth-best joke on the subject. You still may laugh, but an inessential Daily Show is a real loss.
– Jon Stewart is retiring from the Daily Show later this year. He reportedly revealed the big news during the taping of tonight's episode, reports the AV Club. In a statement to Politico, a Comedy Central exec confirms that Stewart will step down at a still-unspecified date after more than 15 years. "Through his unique voice and vision, the Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come," says network chief Michele Ganeless, which seems to suggest that the show will go on with a new host. This is one of those rare cases when a network's official statement is right in line with what most others are writing: "To a younger generation of viewers who stopped watching the news, his late-night 'fake' news show—which skewered politicians and the media—made him a trusted messenger to millions," writes Emily Yahr at the Washington Post. Business Insider: The show is a "cultural force." NPR: A "hugely influential figure in American politics." New York Times: A "nightly home for sharp-edged political satire and up-to-the-moment commentary on the news." (Stewart, of course, is a movie director now, too.)