Backstage with Jon Stewart: A Look at The Daily Show in 2024

Published Feb 12, 2024, 8:30 AM

In this podcast exclusive, Daily Show host Jon Stewart previews his plans for 2024 with showrunner Jen Flanz and co-executive producer Zhubin Parang. They discuss what it’s like for Jon to be back at the Daily Show offices after all these years, how the media landscape has changed, and their plans for covering the 2024 election. They also discuss the correspondents taking on hosting duties, the correspondent casting process, and Jon’s first impressions of Jordan Klepper and Trevor Noah’s audition tapes. 

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All right, all good, It's all good.

Welcome o.

Hey, here's edition listeners. This is a human Perng co executive producer and writer for the Daily Show. We are so happy to be back on the air with new episodes of the Daily Show, and we have a special treat today. I am joined by Daily Show showrunner, writer and executive producer sitting right next to me, Jen Flans Hey, Jen, how are you doing?

How you doing?

Yes?

Clap clap, clap, clip clap. Who is that clapping? Well, you'll be delighted to know. We're also joined by our old friends are on again, off again Boss, the host of the Daily Show for sixteen years, and again mister John Stewart's Welcome to our new fancy podcast studio. John, what do you think.

You've been You're hosting skills in only nine years have improved. I don't know if you've gone to some type of adult learning center for the kinds of hosting skills that you're performing right now, but they've taken a leap forward that I enjoyed very much.

Thank you. I have I've been to several boot camps to learn.

How to hop wait, they have a podcast bootcamp? They do? They do?

You have to spend six months while speaking into a microphone, you do a lot of push ups for some reason, and then at the end of it you have to successfully sell a cast for Mattress or else you have never heard from again.

Can I tell you something that would make a really great podcast someone should do?

Like try to sell something to someone on the ore that'sa someone should.

Do a six month boot camp podcast podcast matter.

I love it. I mean, I'm sure there's already like six Bushwick guys who are doing that podcast separately.

John's not really in our John, you see how nice it is?

Yeah, can I tell you something it does look like definitely one of the places that they thought they might shoot between two ferns, but then decided.

It was an honor just to be there though, to be in that conversation you were.

Definitely when they showed the three pictures to Zach alvin Agus and said what about this?

And he went close, it's close, close, but it may be missing one fern.

And fair it was.

This was just two people around a fern.

We could shoot that. I don't think it's it's right for between two ferns.

That was our mistake to put one fern in the room for between two ferns. I one of us should have said something about it.

Where is that in the building? Is it in the building?

It's next to the green room. Remember how there's.

Three Oh that so the room that you're in is the room It was like I.

Edited yeah, yeah, yeah, the movie. Yeah it was. It was your edit.

That's where we edited rose Water.

Yeah, in the room very much. It says Rosewater was edited here.

Yeah, that's right.

Oh.

And by the way, it must be annoying for all the tourist groups to come by, yes.

Because it is very similar to like the Lord of the Rings tourism, where people there's a whole Rosewater movie tourist industry where they come in and.

Well that's why we put the plack up. But we didn't want to like you know.

I mean, I will say a lot of my running relative mischief, A lot of my running relatives would visit for that Rosewater side though. I will say that.

Yes, no, it was a huge bootleg success.

Lots of my cousins.

It was a huge boot that's for sure.

John. Let's just get right into this, all right. We've dicked around enough. You've been back in the building for a few weeks now, but has any mind John Stewart's back. What do you make of the snacks? There used to be potato chips. There's now a lot of veggie sticks.

If people don't know, No, but it's not just veggie sticks, and don't sell the place short.

There's popcorn.

There's popcorn.

That's true, but people don't know.

What Trevor did not only was bring his own flare and intelligence and wit to the Daily Show. Uh, he apparently has a design sense, Like I did not know. I was there for sixteen years. I did not know we were allowed to make the building and the office look nice.

Yes, that was a big innovation on Trevor's park.

Yes he did. And he was like, are we allowed to?

I had no idea.

There's like pile flooring and there's steel framed window panes that slide and open up into kind of a different a coffee bar area. And when we were there, it was designed in be in ic I believe you would call it. It looked like a bureaucratic and administrative satirical movie about what it was like to work in a in a bureaucratic nights.

It did.

It was like Trevor did when he came in, did have this idea of like, what if we had an office that that did not make people sad when you walked in that did not.

I didn't know we were allowed to do that.

We like, we weren't sad, so I didn't know.

We didn't know.

We're having a good time. He's like, what could look nicer?

I think you'll also be, you know, happy to see that we have had what used to be I think just one variety of potato chip has now been replaced by just endless mummies.

Yes, that's so.

I mean the snack game now look to be fair advances in snacking over nine years, you are living in a different universe.

It's really not fair to compare it.

It's not.

When I was there, the only snacks that were available to people, and obviously this was years ago, were crackers salted and unsolved, and those were the only snacks that were made. And then there was an explosion in ingenuity and in snack technology.

And when I went and you got.

Here's what people don't know. So do you know those racks?

If you were to go to a CBS and they have that one little rat. It's like a.

Tree, a beautiful Christmas tree that you can hang snacks on.

It makes the snacks even more appealing when they're hanging on that tree.

So my question to you guys is who stole it from a convenience storm and is it a wanted snack tree?

It is.

I don't think we should talk about that here because that would be maybe one of us had something.

You know, I remember you when you weren't a company woman. Remember you when you would speak truth to power.

I'm just trying to stay out of you.

Know, you.

To be too real. But I think the that snack tree is also a way to Uh.

I was just gonna know, I was gonna say, and that I'm like, should I give away the game?

Remember?

Do you remember?

Do you remember hot Dog a mouse? Oh?

God, no, I don't know who.

I'll tell you you don't remember.

That's one of Maggie's favorite stories about the Daily Show.

So we were doing a bit.

One night where we needed to get a mouse and we got somebody scored. They went down to the pet store and they got a bait mouse that was about to be prey and when Maggie got wind of it. She promised me that we would keep him safe, and so we had to build a terrarium. She named him hot Dog. And I don't know if you remember she made that big folder of all the care items. I remember how to take care of hot Dog, and she she brought it in.

I remember that.

I lived to be one hundred and thir Oh my god. Wow. And what happened to hot Dog.

Was he became a brilliant French chef and moved and lived in Paris, apparently under a different name. And uh and and became quite well renowned.

Oh good for him, Good for you. I'm glad. I thought you were going to tell me he died. Boy. No, no, no, I'm sorry.

By the way, if Maggie comes to the show to visit, you will tell her.

Yes, he moved to France to be a chef. That was the story that I.

Told her at a farm in France.

That's right, John.

Let me ask you something else, uh, you know John, the media?

Yes, yes, Jimmie, Why why do you keep saying my name? I feel like you're you're setting me up for something.

It's that kind of stuff when you say something overget to remember John, John st John. The media has changed.

I've noticed you haven't said my name even.

J John J.

Let me ask you a question, Jen, Sen, Jen, and John. I'm asking you guys about all the changes that have happened here.

You know, it's been a lot of changes. The differences not so many, not so many.

But Jen, you've successfully navigated this show through many many eras of the Daily Show, so many, John Trevor, I believe two hundred and fifty guest hosts, at least in the intervening years.

I was here with Craig.

You're here with Craig John.

Jen Flans was there when I got there. It was Jen. Were you at that time? You were a PA?

Yes, I was an assistant production coordinator and I sat right behind reception. Remember that little cubicle I had right behind reception, Yes, and and uh before the conference room. And I remember when you walked in. You were like in your leather jacket, and I was like, this is gonna be cool. And he said hi to everyone, and John, you asked me my name, and not to disparage anyone, I don't think Craig knew my name. And I was so excited Wo and you are, I said, Jen, Yeah.

I love how you were. You're the one person who was always fooled by a leather jacket.

No matter who, you're gonna be cool a leather jacket. And I didn't say what's your name?

I said, he's like, you learned everyone's name pretty quickly, which I thought was so impressive.

It's the one thing I have control.

Everything else is jeez. But anyway, it's funny how hard that is now. Like the old days, I used to be able to do that pretty easily, and now I made Jen give me a Facebook. Yeah, it's like a list of everybody that's there, and I like to sit in like, but even that's like for my brain is not as elastic.

So it's it's everybody people here.

We have more everybody, Jen. I'm just hoping that I'll.

Tell you it's good to do that. Everybody remembers when you say their name, which is why John, I'd like to ask you what you know, John. The media landscape has changed so much. When you left the show, there was no TikTok. Now there's TikTok. There are a podcast now they've blown up. There's YouTube. There's so much places to get misinformation, And I'm wondering, John, where you get your misinformation?

Stupid?

When I started at the Daily Show, there was only two ways to get information, Uh.

The streets.

What did the streets say?

The streets You would go out on the streets and say, can someone tell me.

What a dirty Sanchez is? Somebody just said that, does anyone know?

They would say, come over here. And the other was you had to wait for them to make a pamphlet from a printing press. So these were the only two ways that you could gather information.

It's it's relentless now.

I thought it was relentless when I left. It's it's geometrically passed the moment. And as I think the great Maria Ressa says, a lot travels ten times or six times or seven times faster around the world than the truth. I think it's a much more dire situation. But at least none of these social media entities have monetized that idea and incentivized misinformation, because that would truly be dangerous. I'm really glad that they fight it so vigorously.

I actually I know somebody who who who was a content moderator on Facebook, who's one of the people who had to like go through all of the uh you know, it's like really terrible pain.

How can you how can you make an individual do that? That seems like an impossible it's brutal.

They were, they were there for like two or three days, and they're like the amount of of of hideousness that you see people just like very casually posting up just like you know, videos of of murders, videos of of things that they are just putting up just to see if it sticks. But someone's got to go through that and take that down. And that's certally you know, all the AI is being used instead to find out how to like you know, uh, to steal music into and to and to write things instead of you know, doing that. So it's a it's a very brutal job. But you'll be happy to know they don't pay very well, so they are they are addressing its.

I mean, I know how brutal.

Look like, all I need to do is like, you know, announce a tour date and it's only like two common sin before everybody's like you, oh, that's all right, that's true, weird true, But they go at it.

Man.

Let's ask a question here, specifically about you know, your John, you're back to cover this election twenty twenty four. What is it about this election that you are most eager to take on? Because I personally don't know what much there is to satirize. The candidates are very of sound mind, the media seems prepared to root all the issues.

I think the word eager is the one that I find so.

Much or you can, you can interject for me.

It's not just about the election. It's if you want to be present in this.

World.

You have to be present in this conversation, and you have to be as relentless and tenacious as the counter narrative that's being formed through. You know, so much of the information that we see now is weaponized by all different and it it keeps taking exponential leaps, which is why, you know, it's not just the election, it's ai it's the way that we've militarized all our conflict, like it all ties together to I think this one larger idea, which is the form of government that we cherish so much, is really an analog. I don't want to say dinosaur, but it is analog. And the world now moves at an increasingly infinitely digital pace and reconciling those two things I think is the challenge of the moment for people. And I'm excited to be with you guys again and the best fucking news team and to just be a part of that conversation because I think you have to register your thought and complaint so that it can be referenced. Because remember, AI is now the sum total of all that we do. AI really is a law of an information laundering system, a vacuum that takes up all the pieces of human information and then spit some back out in a sort of reconstituted form. If you want this world of the future to be informed but what you think is the right part of the present, you have to register it.

You have to get it out there.

Yeah, if only, if not to change the direction of the conversation at the very least so that when aliens come to the smoldering ruins of mankind they can see something that was like, well, someone had a different idea for how this should Yes, yes, that makes sense, thank you.

You as much. That was much more succinct and much more on point.

Well, that's which is why I'm the host of this podcast today.

In this one episode in this one episode.

Hey, what's up guys? Hi, everybody's all cleaned off. Look at that I got the old suit. Looks still fence.

John, let me ask you a question. You'll be working with with a lot of our correspondents. You know Jordan Klepper. Obviously you you were at the show while while he was the show, while you were hosts. I don't oh you never you never met him?

You mean Jen?

No, No, Jordan is close. It's close. There's a lot of J's, a lot of around the building.

Yes, you see you look at this tall guy, Floppy, we look exactly the same. Yes, yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's easy to.

Know Jordan is the man.

And from the moment he walked in the door, by the way, he was just one of those dudes that because you remember how a lot of times with the correspondence there is a learning curve, not on the comedy chops or not on the writing chops or things like that, on the mechanics of the job, just the weird logistics of you know what news people work on through you know communication school that John, Yes, and turning the camera and making your like there's a mechanical part of this job that it does take most performers who are not familiar with that some uptick and learning curve. Jordan was just like is this my camera?

Boom? Like he just he knew all the roots man right off the bat.

Yeah. His audition was. We were like, I remember John came back he goes, yeah. Yeah.

What we're saying here is Jordan is very good at faking authenticity, is what we're saying, and I agree with that he is. There are other correspondents, though you haven't worked with Desi, Ronnie Costa Duel, say what so far you've seen You haven't seen much of them, but so far as you go in, what do you think their weaknesses seem to be?

Mostly if I could be frank health, it seems like a there there's a lot of and I don't want to say to bertulosis.

That's yeah, it's an assumption, but we keep it unclean and I think that's right now.

Whatever's happening looks to be the precursor to what happened in the Last of Us. It could be a type of mold a massellium. But what's really interesting about it, because we've always talked about this, is finding correspondence for the show is a really arduous thing because it's a very rare individual that has the skill set they have to be able to provide and so many they have to be a Swiss army knife but like a five tool player at all times. And so for you guys to be able to restock in that way is very impressive.

Yeah. I mean jos and I watch so many people that.

Poor Jossy she was she was on tape patrol back when I was here.

You left us, we're still on tape.

Yeah.

It's like when we found Costa's tape, we were like, you know, we're like Ghostbusters Anti Pots. Like it is like you're like, oh my god, we found it.

I remember Trevor, do you remember?

Yes, you put Trevor's tape in and it was and it wasn't even of Corsepond. I watched it for like ten seconds and I was like, that dude could do my job.

Literally.

He said that said I've told this story before, but you said it. You left the room. He didn't watch his whole It was like a letterman.

Said, watched the whole thing.

He didn't even watch the whole thing. I just that guy's gonna take my chair one day, it was the quote and he walked out and we all looked at each other and we go.

It's he.

And we got so worried and upset and then we were like and I mean and then the story goes on from there. But it was like, Yeah, when you find a good one, you're just.

Like, it's that's it. It's it's self evidence.

It's so great. They're so great.

Jessica would remember her too.

I was just like, I.

Watched Jessica Williams tave and I was like, well, and it was one of those things like it wasn't submitted by like an agent like h it was one of those who were like.

Is that filmed in someone's line kitchen? Like what is that happening?

Do you remember we plucked her from her parents' basement? I always said yes, she was.

Like but like she was, that's a person like just doesn't it is like a little bit of like that super nova and like just doesn't come around that often. Yeah, And so whenever we'd find somebody like that, we were always like, we are going to lose them to.

SNL immediate, no question.

Remember, I always say you, I was so happy that you did your on camera internship, summer internship with the three months he's so yeah, he's he's so great and he's but yeah, it's not talent that you're like, oh, this is undeniable, undeniable. But yeah, these I mean desy like, they're all.

Just I think what I'm looking forward to this year is just is also them taking turns being in the che because each of them bring their own voice, in their own perspective that I think it's going to be really fun to wait for each other.

WHOA, Well, you're gonna you're going to keep doing the show, even not on Monday. I thought this was well, I thought we talked about this, We did bring it up Monday with you. Thing is take a nap and the paramount Wednesday.

Yes, to deliver multiple shows a week, and.

How can we do that?

I'm only doing Yeah, well that's the thing though, right because so you don't have to, but just in order to keep the office ratings up with that, you know, the bracket our show, we got to have something on there, you know.

So I didn't realize. Yeah, there's guys that I mean, I'm really sorry that you're gonna have to be working like that.

Like a grind it's.

A bit of a grind.

We're excited. I mean, there are guest host weeks. All of them were so funny and it was it's just like I'm like so psyched to see them.

But that was part of the thought.

And Jen and I had talked about this, you know, one of the things that you know, the guest hosting thing. It was really fun. There was a lot of great people to do it. But when you're doing a show that is central as a point of view show, you are asking the staff to create a completely different show every week with a different point of view, and it's it's a really difficult ask. And I think part of kind of this reset that was part of it was let's let the correspondents take that role and the staff and everybody can sort of calibrate around that sensibility.

Yeah, and I think it's going to be really exciting.

And we know because we've been writing for their voices for so long and they're all friends.

You know, boy, John, I wish you had been actually the the and that guests those era where like every week the guests and their point of view would like wildly change. How I would have to explain just by looking at the writers in the room that that point of view was not going to fly this week. So I when we did say something like good, the next week they say something, I'd just be staring them, like just trying to look while they guess.

Those I told you eyes, we are not going to fund you cry. I told you guys that, And the next week you're like you cray.

The only thing standing be doing us and barbarism.

Yeah it was there was that was hard, but.

You guys earned your your your stripes on that. Like that's a very high degree difficult.

I think we people come through, I think for this, but we're the heroes.

Leslie Jones like Leslie, like the energy that she brought and the perspective like prety.

We left so like that studio is on fire. Yeah it was. There was just a few people that were just so fun. Marlin was such a good time and and I just want to work with the respect that they had for the show and the desk because of you. And it's like they were so excited to do the show. Is really cool.

That's nice.

They're like, oh, I can't believe I'm doing the Daily Show.

Was like I can't believe he got a new desk. I walked in there and I was like, how tall was.

The he is host?

By the way, Trevor is deceivingly tall. He doesn't seem it seems like average.

And explicitly handsome, and I don't care for that.

Actually we're getting, you know, another dude desk. You know what, I started thinking, could I do you just dropped a Bob show? I was like, am I allowed to say this? By the way, I'm like, we're in charge, but am I allowed to say this? I don't know. Anyway, it'll be new and accommodated co host because we had a lot of fun when we did that the Jordan Desi Show and the Jordan Yeah.

I like the idea of trying out the two man game.

Too, you know, if you want to talk to a few people. Our desk currently doesn't really accommodate that.

So the only thing that because I don't have the center of gravity by of having my feet like more firmly on the ground, that's a pretty slick plywood that goes beneath that thing.

Uh huh.

And I'm hoping that we at least put I don't know if you remember, like we nearly killed Jimmy Carter, like fifteen years ago, slid.

You fast out of the Yes, he slid and realized no break.

Yeah, and it's and the desk is on a platform, so.

I think I think the old stage manager might have shaved his life.

Oh my god.

Yeah, a hero.

But yeah, there have been multiple guests over the years that almost fly off.

And that's the fun of it.

But a way to go a.

Way honestly, go big or go home.

That is like they wake up in a hospital. What happened? You were plugging the movie. You had just thrown to a clip and then you rolled back. That was it?

Oh my good. Anyway, Yeah, we'll watch for that with the new desk. Yeah, maybe we'll just do a chair with nobody.

I mean just yeah, we'll say, you know, just some uh, just get some double sided scotch tape on there. That'll solve the problem.

To you, dude, producing, dressing the seting the wheels.

It's a grind. It's a grind. Those aging six days for every day, that's the important. Well, look, guys, we are so excited to be back on the air and to tackle all the issues and and just fun characters and and uh and goofs and gaps are going to be happening this election season. Let me ask you, John before we let you go, what is what is? What's the What are you most excited for the viewers to tune in for this this upcoming year.

I'm excited for the audience to experience that split second of vertigo that's going to happen when they see a familiar name in a familiar setting with a completely different face and head, and I'm excited to see them go, wait, is that also happening to me?

Because that would be weird.

If he's older, that must mean wait.

A minute, how how fast is the sixth salary? Is this gentleman is heading to the event horizon?

What is going on here?

Sure, that's why we'll be watching.

Everyone's gonna be watching.

It's gonna be awesome and we will.

Yeah, it's gonna be fantastic. For the years edition, I am a Juben Prang joined by Jenn Flanns and the Jon Stewart What's Up.

By by explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show.

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