Jon Stewart has signed a new deal that will keep the comedian at his weekly perch on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” through 2028.
Skydance Television, which owns Comedy Central, announced Monday that Stewart will remain as a once-a-week host and serve as executive producer in a deal that takes him through the 2028 presidential election.
“Jon Stewart is a generational talent and The Daily Show continues to be one of the most influential franchises on television and a cornerstone of Comedy Central,” George Cheeks, co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV, said in a statement. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Jon and his award winning news team.”
Tuesdays through Thursdays will continue to be handled by “Daily Show” regulars Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta and Desi Lydic.
Stewart is a signature talent for Comedy Central, which is also the home of the long-running animated series “South Park.” The channel needed to retain its biggest names to keep the channel valuable to cable and satellite TV providers who pay to carry it.
Stewart first became “Daily Show” host in 1999 and turned the satirical news program into an important voice in the national discourse. He stepped away in 2015 when he was among the highest-paid performers in the TV business.
He had a production deal with HBO and hosted a series for Apple TV, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” before rejoining “The Daily Show” in 2024 to host on Monday nights. He signed a second one-year deal in November that was set to expire at the end of this year.
While President Trump has attacked network late-night hosts who are critical of him, he has never gone after Stewart in any of his social media rants during his second term. Comedy Central is a cable network not subject to Federal Communications Commission authority, unlike Stewart’s late-night cohort Jimmy Kimmel, who appears on ABC. Both Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr have threatened to pull Kimmel off the air.
Late-night TV is struggling overall as a genre due to younger viewers moving away from traditional TV to streaming, but “The Daily Show” has continued to have a strong following. The program hit an eight-year high in viewing during the third quarter of 2026, according to Nielsen data. Comedy Central said the program has accrued 1.6 billion views across social media in 2026.
Skydance got out of the broadcast network late-night business when it canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The company said the program was losing $40 million a year. It was replaced by “Comics Unleashed,” a non-topical comedy show from media mogul Byron Allen, who leases the late-night hours from the network.
