The Untold Truth Of The Daily Show

The Daily Show is a cultural institution that changed the late-night TV landscape with its scathing takes on politics and media culture. However, the show wasn't always that way; in fact, early iterations struggled to nail down a tone and dig deeply into important topics while still finding the humor. Through hard work and perseverance, the series was able to develop into something that's launched the careers of dozens of comedians, producers, and writers—and begin a new generation of satirical talk shows. This is the untold truth of The Daily Show.

When Stewart took over, the staff wasn't immediately ready to accept him as their new leader. In fact, there were quite a few conflicts during Stewart's early tenure, with Stewart saying that while he viewed it as a new show, Kilborn's staff viewed it as an exact continuation of what they'd been doing before. The conflict bubbled over several weeks after Stewart started, when the writers came to him and told him to stop changing their jokes. "After a weekend of pacing and smoking and having tremendous Lincoln-Douglas debates on the couch by myself, I went back in, and it was horrible," Stewart said. "I basically told them all to f— off. 'You work for me. And if you don't like the direction, okay. I get that. Don't work here.'"

Part of changing the office culture meant hiring his own staff of writers and correspondents—including Steve Carell, recruited by Colbert, who he'd worked with on The Dana Carvey Show. As the staff started to turn over, the show felt more like Stewart's own, but he didn't feel true ownership until the craziness of the 2000 presidential election.

It started with a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, where Carell managed to find himself on a bus with John McCain, lobbing a bunch of softballs before hitting McCain with a tough question about pork barrel politics and the Commerce Committee. "Our defining moment, with John McCain, represents both the triumph and the failure of our show," said head writer Ben Karlin. "McCain was caught in the headlights. But we punctured it with a joke, so all you're left with is funny and awkward. It's bittersweet." (This is something Stewart ribbed Carell about on air, jokingly telling him to "do better" when it came to asking hard-hitting questions and getting answers.)

Despite its dropped response, this moment started the show on a path toward covering more important stories with a humorous slant, something they had the chance to refine during the months of "hanging chad" insanity surrounding the aftermath of the Bush/Gore election. As a result, The Daily Show enjoyed a surge in popularity and cultural relevance, with the show earning its first Peabody Award and continuing to refine its point of view throughout the Bush presidency.

The Daily Show's ascension to cultural institution status wasn't without controversy, and two of the biggest issues came later on in the show's run, amidst accusations of racism and sexism stemming from two highly publicized incidents.

The first issue came in 2010, when Jezebel writer Irin Carmon penned an article titled "The Daily Show's Woman Problem," which alleged that the show had a history of keeping female correspondents off the air and claimed they hired Olivia Munn partially because of her looks and appeal to male viewers. The piece featured comments from a few former correspondents and writers who felt they'd been marginalized in the workplace. One former female correspondent said a producer told her to imagine The Daily Show as her "pilot boyfriend" who she has a great time with while he's in town, but then never sees again. More than 30 female staffers at the show responded to the article with a letter of their own, calling the article "a vivid and dramatic narrative" that was "not our office."

The Daily Show weathered that storm, but Stewart was touched much more personally by another incident involving correspondent and writer Wyatt Cenac. After Stewart did an on-air impression of then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in 2011, some on-air Fox personalities accused him of racism. Cenac sided with Fox, saying that the impersonation reminded him of racist caricatures on The Amos 'n' Andy Show. He and Stewart got into an argument at the office that resulted in Stewart getting up and leaving the room, something he believes Cenac took as him saying "I'm done with you." The two later reached a peace, and Cenac stayed at The Daily Show for another year before departing. However, the incident would come back up shortly before Stewart's departure, when Cenac made the dispute public on an episode of comedian Marc Maron's podcast. "I represent my community and I represent my people," he said. "And I've got to be honest if something seems questionable."

The show's producers responded to his comments in an interview with The New York Times, saying the show had "blind spots" they were trying to fix. Cenac and Stewart also exchanged emails after the podcast, eventually reaching an agreement and leaving Cenac comfortable enough to return to the show for the final episode. Stewart says he also floated Cenac's name as his possible replacement after he left the show, although that never came to fruition.

Some of the more famous Daily Show graduates include Colbert, Carell (and his wife, Nancy Walls Carell), Rob and Nate Corddry, Ed Helms, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, John Oliver, Josh Gad, Aasif Mandvi, Matt Walsh, Rob Riggle, Jessica Williams, Munn, Cenac, Larry Wilmore, Kristen Schaal, Al Madrigal, and Michael Che—all of whom returned to see Stewart off during his final episode.

Some of the group (Carell, Gad, Munn) went on to become movie stars, while others have enjoyed very successful careers in television (Jones, Schaal, Riggle). It all started with The Colbert Report, which Stewart helped his former correspondent develop when he realized it was time for Colbert to move on to bigger things. The two initially developed a sitcom based on Colbert's life growing up in South Carolina; however, when CBS declined to pick up the show, they decided to create a partner for The Daily Show utilizing the persona of Colbert's "conservative blowhard" correspondent. Although Colbert was unsure if he could sustain the persona for four nights a week, Colbert quickly became a success. "It came out of the box fully formed, episode one," said Ganeless. "Which is—especially as we watch all the other late-night shows evolve today—incredible and extraordinary. He had a very specific idea of what he wanted to do with the character he had evolved on The Daily Show."

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report changed the TV landscape, opening the door for late-night satire shows to follow, many hosted by Daily Show alums. There was Last Week Tonight at HBO with John Oliver (more on him later), Colbert replacement The Nightly Show featuring Larry Wilmore (and the Nightly Show replacement featuring correspondent Jordan Klepper), Full Frontal with Samantha Bee at TBS, and a more politically focused Weekend Update featuring Che at Saturday Night Live.

Colbert spoke to Stewart on his final show and expressed the gratitude that he, the other correspondents, and the staff of the show felt for the host, and said what he taught them made their future careers possible. "We learned from you by example how to do a show with intention, how to work with clarity, how to treat people with respect," he said. "All of us who were lucky enough to work with you for 16 years are better at our jobs because we got to watch you do yours, and we are better people for having known you."