The Daily Show (TDS) is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+ of extended episodes. The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories as well as political figures, media organizations, and often uses self-referential humor.
The half-hour-long show premiered on July 22, 1996, and was first hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 17, 1998. Jon Stewart then took over as the host from January 11, 1999, until August 6, 2015, making the show more strongly focused on political satire and news satire, in contrast with the pop culture focus during Kilborn's tenure. Stewart was succeeded by Trevor Noah, whose tenure began on September 28, 2015. Under the different hosts, the show has been formally known as The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn from 1996 to 1998, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 until 2015, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah from 2015 to 2022. The Daily Show is the longest-running program on Comedy Central (counting all three tenures), and has won 24 Primetime Emmy Awards.
The program has been popular among young audiences. The Pew Research Center suggested in 2010 that 74% of regular viewers were between 18 and 49, and that 10% of the audience watched the show for its news headlines, 2% for in-depth reporting, and 43% for entertainment; compared with respectively 64%, 10% and 4%, who said the same of CNN.
Critics chastised Stewart for not conducting sufficiently hard-hitting interviews with his political guests, some of whom he may have lampooned in previous segments. Stewart and other Daily Show writers responded to such criticism by saying that they do not have any journalistic responsibility and that as comedians, their only duty is to provide entertainment. Stewart's appearance on the CNN show Crossfire picked up this debate, where he chastised the CNN production and hosts for not conducting informative and current interviews on a news network.
In September 2022, Noah announced he would step down as the host of The Daily Show. His last episode as host was on December 8, 2022. A new permanent host has not been chosen.
Format
Opening segment
Originally, during Trevor Noah's tenure as host, each episode begins with announcer Drew Birns announcing the date and the introduction, "From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Previously, the introduction was "This is The Daily Show, the most important television program, ever." The host then opens the show with a monologue drawing from current news stories and issues. Previously, the show had divided its news commentary into sections known as "Headlines", "Other News", and "This Just In"; these titles were dropped from regular use on October 28, 2002, and were last used on March 6, 2003. Some episodes will begin with a 1–3 minute intro on a small story (or small set of stories) before fully transitioning into the main story of the night.
Correspondent segments
The monologue segment is often followed by a segment featuring an exchange with a correspondent, either at the anchor desk with the host or reporting from a false location in front of a greenscreen showing stock footage. They typically present absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against the host's straight man. Some correspondent segments involve the show's members travelling to different locations to file comedic reports on current news stories and conduct interviews with people related to the featured issue.
Correspondents are typically introduced as the show's "senior" specialist in the story's subject, and can range from relatively general (such as Senior Political Analyst) to absurdly specific (such as Senior Religious Registry Correspondent). The cast of correspondents is quite diverse, and many often sarcastically portray extreme stereotypes of themselves to poke fun at a news story, such as "Senior Latino Correspondent", "Senior Youth Correspondent" or "Senior Black Correspondent".
While correspondents stated to be reporting abroad are usually performing in-studio in front of a greenscreen background, on rare occasions, cast members have recorded pieces on location. For instance, during the week of August 20, 2007, the show aired a series of segments called "Operation Silent Thunder: The Daily Show in Iraq" in which correspondent Rob Riggle reported from Iraq. In August 2008, Riggle traveled to China for a series of segments titled "Rob Riggle: Chasing the Dragon", which focused on the 2008 Beijing Olympics.