Late-night TV stalwart savouring every moment of final 12 shows

Jon Stewart enters the home stretch of his 16 years on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show next week, with 12 more nights of jokes at the expense of those who make and report the news before he signs off in early August.

Stewart’s exit, the latest in a year of upheaval in late-night television, will be felt most acutely over the next 15 months as the US approaches its first presidential election since 1996 without his comic take.

Attesting to Stewart’s cultural import, President Barack Obama is booked for his seventh appearance on the show next week.

Stewart, who started on The Daily Show in 1999, cited restlessness in announcing his exit last February. During a recent appearance on The Daily Show, film director Judd Apatow said he sensed that feeling even before the announcement when he interviewed Stewart by phone for a just-released book.

“I think it was that one moment when you were saying, ‘Oh, God, I’m out of gas. What am I going to do?”’ Apatow said to Stewart’s laughter.

When Seth MacFarlane mentioned he was feeling burned out, Stewart told him, “Let me tell you my solution. Quit.”

An audience member shouted out, “We love you!”

“That’s not love,” Stewart shot back. “Love is taking soup to a sick friend. Love is not saying, ‘ do more shows! Entertain me!’,” he said.

Adam Lowitt, an executive producer on The Daily Show, said he’s had no sense his boss is secondguessing his decision.

“Even around the office, he seems to be relishing the place that he’s in right now and taking in every aspect of the show and the people that work there. “He’s aware that time is winding down. Regret is not there.”

Still, as Stewart stifled laughter before delivering a comic lecture directed at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on the show last month, he couldn’t resist the aside, “I’m going to miss this a little bit”.

Stewart was animated, almost gleeful, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president. The jokes poured out as Stewart said Trump was putting him in a comedy hospice with injections of straight morphine.

The day of Trump’s announcement was one of those special times in the office that Lowitt said he’ll always remember.

“Every moment was just better than the rest,” he said. “Everyone was just beaming with excitement. That is something that I will definitely miss — knowing that this material is out there and the greatest performer is about to deliver on that in six hours.”

Stewart’s value was evident for a different reason after the Charleston church massacre. He opened the show by admitting he had no jokes, then delivered an impassioned monologue on his frustration about the lack of will in combating mass shootings. With Letterman’s retirement, Stewart was the only person in late-night TV with the gravitas to pull that off.

As the days wind down for Stewart, the show has done selfdeprecatory clip packages — Stewart breaking into song, complaining about his health or admitting to guests he hadn’t read their book or seen their movie.

Stewart is conscious of making the final few weeks relatively low-key, Lowitt said. His last show in August is in prime vacation time. “What he’s always said is, ‘We’re just going to do the show that we do. We’re not going to do something crazy or reinvent it’,” he said. Actors Paul Rudd and Jake Gyllenhaal and author Ta-Nehisi Coates are guests this week.

Stewart hasn’t said what he’s doing next. Lowitt is staying on to work for Stewart’s successor, South African comedian Trevor Noah, who is essentially keeping the same staff when he starts on September 28.

It ensures the sensibility of The Daily Show will remain, even though Stewart won’t.