‘The Daily Show’ and Jon Stewart Cannot Be Defeated

It’s hard to argue with a two-decade hot streak, and that’s essentially the run that The Daily Show and its direct offshoots have had at the Emmys since the early 2000s. Expect this trend to continue at the Emmys 2024 awards ceremony on Sunday night, when The Daily Show and returning host Jon Stewart pick up another trophy for outstanding talk series.

The run began 21 years ago, when The Daily Show With Jon Stewart—which had become a nightly dose of reality and common sense in a post-9/11 era dominated by the George W. Bush administration’s misinformation and Fox News distortion—won its first Primetime Emmy for outstanding variety, music, or comedy series. Then it won again in 2004. And in 2005. And again and again, picking up a number of writing wins as well through 2011, after which the top category changed its name simply to “outstanding variety series.”

In 2012, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart won the inaugural outstanding-variety series Emmy. At the decade mark of its sweep, in 2013, the show finally lost to The Colbert Report, a spin-off show starring Stephen Colbert, who made his breakthrough as one of The Daily Show’s star contributors. The Colbert Report won again in 2014, but then The Daily Show made its comeback the following year in a category that had once again been renamed, this time to “outstanding variety talk series.”

Stewart left the program that year, ceding the host seat to Trevor Noah. In 2016, the championship late-night-talk-series honor shifted to HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which also starred a Daily Show alum and began shortly after Oliver had an acclaimed run filling in for Stewart (who was away filming a movie) on The Daily Show. Oliver’s solo program won the variety-talk award each year until 2022, when the Television Academy responded to gripes to change the category again so that it would differentiate between Oliver’s show, which airs only once a week, and others that aired virtually nightly.

Oliver kept winning in 2023 in his new category, outstanding scripted variety series, while The Daily Show With Trevor Noah reclaimed the trophy for outstanding talk series—just as its host was stepping away. As the comedy news program sought out a new anchor, hitting a few speed bumps along the way, Stewart himself eventually was recruited to return to his old desk for one night a week.

His return brought a ratings surge and hosannas from most critics, although some left-wing watchers have grumbled that he occasionally aims his satiric point of view at the Biden administration alongside his signature Republican skewering. Stewart has embraced the notion that he’s loyal to reality and fairness more than a particular political party or point of view, but he has again proven himself vital as a divided country grinds toward another ominous and agonizing election.

That brings us to this year, and the talk-series honor that will (almost certainly) be bestowed on The Daily Show again on Sunday.

Count on it. History shows there is no more sure thing in late night.

Listen to Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast now.

Disaster? What Disaster? In Trumpworld the Debate Was a Win

The Richest Man in Germany Is Worth $44 Billion. The Source of His Family Fortune? The Nazis Know.

Inside the Hive Breaks Down the Presidential Debate, the GOP’s Extreme Policies, and More