The Daily Show viewers have gotten used to seeing Jon Stewart host the comedy program once a week on the 2024 TV schedule, usually on Mondays, but sometimes on other nights if there are special circumstances. Stewart’s return after nearly a decade away followed after a year of the Comedy Central series cycling through guests hosts and correspondents sitting behind the anchor desk, with the latter still happening. However, there was a time when Hasan Minhaj was being lined up to become The Daily Show’s next permanent host, and the comedian revealed what Stewart told him when the gig fell through.
Following his original tenure on The Daily Show as a correspondent from 2014 to 2018, word came in during summer 2023 that Minhaj was the frontrunner to take over as host from Trevor Noah, who departed in December 2022. However, following a controversy involving his standup routine, this plan was scrapped, and while Minhaj was obviously disappointed about this turn of events, he shared with Esquire that Stewart encouraged him to “make something hilarious” from this unfortunate professional experience:
‘This is great for you.’ When Jon told me that, I felt really seen.
In case you’re unfamiliar, a month it was reported that Comedy Central was courting Hasan Minhaj to be Trevor Noah’s successor on The Daily Show (and we later learned that the deal was “all but done by late summer”), a New Yorker article was published claiming that Minhaj had either embellished or simply made up stories for his standup act. Minhaj described the story as “needlessly misleading” and posted a video in late October responding to the publication’s allegations. By that point, though, Minhaj was reportedly “suddenly seen to be a liability,” and the search for Noah’s replacement widened again.
Jon Stewart was among a handful of comedians who Hasan Minhaj spoke to after all this went down, with others including Mike Birbiglia, Ray Youssef and John Mulaney. Here’s what he had to say about his phone call with Stewart:
I remember Jon [Stewart] called, and he said, ‘Why the fuck are they doing this? And who does this benefit?’
Ironically, it ended up benefitting Jon Stewart since things falling through with Hasan Minhaj paved the way for him to return to his old Daily Show stomping grounds on a part-time basis. Minhaj even joked in May about how he ended up saving a “dying institution.” Although things didn’t work out for him on The Daily Show, he certainly isn’t struggling to same in the spotlight. Along with his continued comedy work, Minhaj most recently starred opposite Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us, and he’ll be seen playing a tech CEO as a member of the Tron: Ares cast, which opens October 10 on the 2025 movies schedule.
Meanwhile, The Daily Show continues to air Monday-Thursday at 11 pm ET on Comedy Central, with episodes becoming available to stream afterwards with a Paramount+ subscription. Jon Stewart will continue his part-time hosting for the rest of the year, but it remains to be seen if a new permanent host will finally be selected in 2025 or if the series will continue cycling through various people.