Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart said his biggest regret in the show was trying to create viral moments through confrontation.
The comedian, who stepped down as host in 2015 after a 16-year stint, described an “evisceration expectation” that led him to take to task political nemeses, such as former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, whom he brought on as guests.
“That’s the part of it that I probably most regret,” Stewart said in an interview with the New York Times. “… We tried not to give something more spice than it deserved, but you were aware of, say, what went viral. Resisting that gravitational force is really hard.”
Asked about the ascendance of new Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, Stewart referred to them as the “next level” beyond O’Reilly, who was forced out of the network in 2017.
“As things progress, to get the same dopamine hit, you have to push it further,” Stewart said. “Although O’Reilly pushed it pretty far. The question was always, Why would you talk to him? Why do you have him on the show if you can’t destroy him? If you want to talk about the worst legacy of the Daily Show, it was probably that.”
Stewart also criticized the media, saying news outlets never really had a “good handle” on how to hold politicians accountable.
“The media’s job is to deconstruct the manipulation, not to just call it a lie,” Stewart said. “It’s about informing on how something works so that you understand the lie’s purpose. What are the structural issues underneath the lie? The media shouldn’t take the political system personally, or allow its own narcissism to rise to the narcissism of the politicians, or become offended that the politicians are lying — their job is to manipulate.”
Stewart was succeeded by Trevor Noah on the Daily Show.
