Jon Stewart and Daily Show Producer, Ben Karlin — Wired interview

[chukster8614]

Reinventing Television

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a Special Report from Jon Stewart.

By Thomas Goetz

Wake up, television executives of America: Jon Stewart - the wiseacre host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show - knows more about your business than you do. Sure, The Daily Show may just seem like a smart comedy program on basic cable; nothing more than good political satire and a spot-on parody of TV news pieties. But it's also a demonstration of television done right. In the six years since Stewart took over, the audience for The Daily Show has grown almost threefold to 1.4 million viewers a night. It boasts a legion of young, smart fans who are among the most demographically desirable audiences in the industry - further collapsing the caste distinctions between networks and cable. It has raised the bar for tie-ins, with a best-seller (America [The Book] has sold a stunning 2.5 million copies), a hit DVD (Indecision 2004), and - starting in October - a full-fledged spinoff (The Colbert Report). And The Daily Show may be the most popular TV program on the Internet.

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http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/stewart.html

[Ophelia]

Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" should actually be thanking God that Bush was re-elected. I still like John Kerry very much, but there is no way he could provide fodder for that show the way the Bush regime does. :lol:

I just watched that "Crossfire" clip again, and Stewart was just dead on -- as always. And it doesn't hurt that he's cute, too. :D

[JustinH]

What was the symbol for stop supposed to be?
Karlin: [Gives thumbs-up.]
Stewart: It was a stupid way to do it.

They are freakin' hilarious :lol:

[Lumpen Prole]

If The Colbert Report is half as good as The Daily Show, I'll be tuning in as much as possible.