Scholarly Paper written on The Daily Show

The Daily Show: The Face of American News in 2005

Steve Gennaro

It was a typical Saturday evening broadcast from the NBC television studios in New York City. The year was 1975, and unbeknownst to the television viewer, a news anchor had just uttered the words that would change American news forever, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.” What began as a three minute segment on Saturday Night Live, the “Weekend Update” skit quickly became Saturday Night Live’s most popular skit and occupied nine minutes of airtime before the first season was over. Chevy Chase “took the stage when the press and public alike were anxious for a new diversion, not unlike the Beatles when they landed in New York soon after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. America after Watergate was ready to proclaim a new clown prince, someone whose very freshness and confidence was a relief and renewal. In 1975, Chevy Chase was it. ”[1] America had fallen in love with comedy-news.

The Daily Show debuted on the American cable channel Comedy Central in July of 1996. Originally, Craig Kilborn was the show’s host, but he was replaced by current host Jon Stewart on January 11, 1999. Since Stewart took over as the host, the viewing audience of the show has more than tripled to a peak of over a million viewers a night in 2004.[2] The Daily Show has become the most trusted source for political news on television. Since the beginning of 2004, Jon Stewart and his cast of reporters have taken hold of the mainstream media. In the lead up to the 2004 Presidential election Jon Stewart’s face could be seen everywhere. He was a guest on every imaginable news program from The O’Reilly Report to Crossfire as every newsroom asked for his opinion on the upcoming election. Jon Stewart’s book, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy in Action, has spent months atop the New York Times Best Sellers List. In 2004, America loves comedy-news more than ever.

This paper examines the rise of The Daily Show’s audience over the last five years. Television critics argue that it is Stewart’s easy going personality that has endeared him to comedy-news viewers, however, it would be imprudent to ignore the changes in The Daily Show’s program content (that is the shift from comedy-news to news) and the changes in the surrounding society (most notably America’s involvement in Iraq) that have played a part in the rise of The Daily Show audience. Just like with Chevy Chase’s rise to stardom in 1975, Jon Stewart’s rise to prominence and with him the success of The Daily Show has largely been in response to America’s need for a new clown prince who can provide relief and renewal to its involvement in Iraq.

Furthermore, examining the growth of The Daily Show audience also involves examining the shift in program content on The Daily Show as witnessed through its transition from comedy-news to real-news. This transition works much like a two way street; The Daily Show, traditionally only of comedic value, is used as a source of news, while traditional hard news is becoming entertainment. In one direction, we see an increase of the political prestige of the guests on The Daily Show over the last two years, thus making The Daily Show more authentic in its news-character. In the other direction we see the transition in news as a television genre to what James Compton would call a “Debordian spectacle,” or what Neil Postman would say is responsible for our “amusing ourselves to death.” The merger between entertainment and news on the major news stations further highlights that the difference between hard news and The Daily Show is decreasing.
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I am both elated and horrified at the same time that the daily show is such a huge impact on politics in America.