Jon Stewart Will Return to Host ‘The Daily Show’ on Mondays

Jon Stewart is returning to late night.

Mr. Stewart will take the reins of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” the show he hosted to huge success from 1999 to 2015, for one night a week through the 2024 presidential election, the network said in a surprise announcement on Wednesday. Mr. Stewart’s first show will be on Feb. 12.

“The Daily Show” has been without a permanent host since Trevor Noah stepped down in late 2022. Stewart will also be a producer on all episodes of “The Daily Show.” Other episodes of the show will be hosted by a rotating lineup of the show’s news team.

“We are honored to have him return to Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,” said Chris McCarthy, a senior executive at Paramount, Comedy Central’s parent.

Mr. Stewart appeared to acknowledge his return to “The Daily Show” in a social media post shortly after the news was announced. “Excited for the future!” he said while making a joke about college football.

Mr. Stewart’s relentless focus on politics over his 16-year “Daily Show” run, unusual for late night at the time, transformed him from a promising comedian into one of the nation’s foremost political and media critics. Mr. Stewart had his detractors, and the viewership of “The Daily Show” lagged others at the time but his influence was outsize — and long lasting.

Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, two “Daily Show” correspondents who catapulted to fame during Mr. Stewart’s tenure, landed their own late night shows, which they still host. And like Mr. Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” their shows also have a laser focus on current events — nearly always with a left-leaning bias — and helped reorder the late-night landscape in the process.