Everyone has an opinion on who could be the Next Jon Stewart, and with a deep well of talent to draw from itself, a “Daily Show” alum — say, long-time correspondent Samantha Bee — might be the most likely choice. But after 16 years of the same flavor, it’s also just as likely that Comedy Central could shake up its most influential product. Let’s take a look at some of the front-runners and dark horses in this race.
Salon is already handicapping the successors to Jon Stewart
An actual journalist who would decide to release him/herself from the bonds of so-called journalistic ethics would give the program even more gravitas than its de facto truth so subscribed to by Millennials as a secondary effect, and give Comedy Central a kind of potential global reach as a primary news source, erasing some other news outlets noting that Fox News has female anchors who are not journalists, but who are very entertaining however unintentionally.
Dan Rather, Brian Williams, Piers Morgan, or even Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann would take it from bits to actual breaking news remotes perhaps in partnership with Al-Jazeera America or another international English language news network.
The Daily Show must continue its deconstructive premise and take it further, otherwise it will degenerate into the formulaic premises so far tried with Colbert and Wilmore.
And for some bizarre reason Forbes is rooting for Conan O'Brian
Conan O’Brien was a no-name talent to the public when he was hired to replace Letterman. He had the creative skill and writing chops thanks to his time on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, but as an on screen personality, the man was completely untested… and that made him perfect. With hindsight, we now see that Conan was able to perfectly slide into the Late Night slot because no one had expectations of him. If he failed, he would have failed quietly. If he succeeded, we would have done so just as quietly and built (as he did). In the end, the now TBS host took what was a show built around the brand of Letterman and re-constructed it into one built around the brand of Conan… and this is what Comedy Central needs to do with The Daily Show.
The now infamous fake news program isn’t the brand people tune in for, they tune in for Stewart. As such, the play for Comedy Central isn’t to find a “name” to take over the series, it’s to find someone who no one knows, but has the creative capability to steer the ship. They need to find the kind of personality like Conan that has the talent to go in front of the camera but, until now, never had a reason. It’s really the only play. If the network goes for star power, it could back fire on a massive level because the star in question will never be able to live up to Jon. But, by going unknown, the successor doesn’t have to dismantle Jon’s house, they just have to add to it and make it their own.