7 thoughts on “Why Jon Stewart’s next show should be on public radio

  1. Exactly, Aaron. Jon Stewart works four days a week, three weeks a month, and earns a reported $20 million a year, second only to Judge Judy among TV personalities. And even with that work schedule, he’s giving it up to spend more time with his family. Good luck recruiting him for a five-day-a-week talk show out of WNYC.

    On the other hand, maybe he could fill in for Diane Rehm sometime, Or even host a summer replacement show when Prairie Home Companion is on break. Guest-host “Wait, Wait” even. But a new career as a public radio host? Dream on.

    • Who said anything about five-day-a-week? I could see him doing a weekly, if the staff could do most of the work and he just steps in once a week to tape. Alec Baldwin is a pretty well paid guy too, and yet he finds the time. Part of the reason people make a lot of money is so that they can then go and do things that don’t make a lot of money.

      • Not sure we’d want to use “Here’s the Thing” as a template here. Baldwin was a remarkably good host (and I’m told he is REALLY into public radio…whereas Stewart is more ambivalent, I think).

        But Baldwin’s insistence on only interviewing guests face to face (no ISDN) was a HUGE limiting factor. (note: I have heard stories from more than one source that this was the case, but I have not heard it from any source directly involved with Baldwin or the show, so it’s possible that it’s apocryphal.)

        Plus Baldwin was still doing a lot of his regular acting work in addition to the show; that’s a really tough balancing act and I don’t think anyone would recommend it. And I don’t know that Stewart wants to let go of everything else to ONLY do something with NPR. Honestly, I would question that he should; as noble and “good” a gig at NPR might be, Stewart’s got talent, skills and power that could be put towards things a whole lot bigger and with more impact.

        Put it this way: if Stewart calls the White House out of the blue, it’s a good bet Obama would take the call. (or at least the Chief of Staff would) Don’t think too many people at NPR can claim that level of access! :)

  2. Welllll, you’re confusing the broadcast schedule of The Daily Show with how much Stewart actually works. First off, on show days I believe he puts in 10-12 hours a day; according to his Fresh Air interview, they have a big “review the news” meeting at 9am, so figure they’re getting into the office at least at 8am. And the show tapes at 6pm. I haven’t attended TDS but I did get to see The Colbert Report and they are pretty close to “live to tape” when they do it; very few re-takes and not a lot of extraneous material. So figure taping is done by 6:45pm, and they probably have to stick around another hour…minimum…during the editing process. Even if it’s just to available to re-shoot something. That’s a pretty long, intense day.

    And that doesn’t account for however long his commute is, which unless he lives in Manhattan (and I don’t think he does) is going to be at least 30 minutes each way, and more like 60 or 90 minutes each way.

    Second, he’s also producing other shows besides just TDS. He was heavily involved with TCR, of course, and I assume he’s equally involved with The Nightly Show. Plus there’s other Comedy Central shows he helps produce, both formally and informally. And whatever other “personal” side projects he does, like that film he took a sabbatical to direct.

    Honestly, and not to take anything away from folks like Rehm, Ashbrook, etc, but a one- or two-hour a day, five days a week, NPR talk show would probably be a significant step DOWN in workload for Stewart.

  3. Mind you, I claim no special inside knowledge to Stewart’s plans. And I’m sure he is very, very good about maintaining a public persona while guarding his privacy tightly. So for all I know he’d love to take a gig at NPR. Certainly I think it would be INCREDIBLY AWESOME if he did it. And I think he’d be very good at it, and overall it’d be a good fit for NPR, too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *