Rieder: Can anyone replace Jon Stewart?
We always want to know what's coming next.
NBC News anchor Brian Williams had barely gotten into hot water before people, journalists prominent among them, started speculating about his successor. Same thing happened when Jon Stewart announced last Tuesday that he was leaving The Daily Show by the end of the year.
Both succession dances are important. While Williams has been suspended for six months without pay for exaggerating his adventures in Iraq, it's hard to imagine him returning to the anchor chair. A critical Washington Post piece over the weekend reinforces the notion that Williams' record will remain the subject of scrutiny and damaging new revelations will emerge.
Who comes next is vitally important to NBC and parent Comcast. NBC News, long dominant in the weekday morning show wars and on Sunday morning with Meet the Press, has fallen behind in those slots. But Williams has kept the network in front in the evening news sweepstakes.
While it's easy to make fun of the evening news as a totally uncool relic of bygone days, watched by an aging audience and bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry, the three newscasts have a combined audience of more than 27 million. While that's significantly smaller than in the glory days of the past, it's still a lot of people, and all of the shows have audiences that dwarf those of cable news shows,
Nightly News generated $160 million in ad revenue last year, according to Kantar Media. Comcast hasn't been paying Williams that $10 million salary for nothing.
While Williams sits on the sidelines, fill-in Lester Holt has a great opportunity to play his way into the lineup. Those nightly ratings will be watched closely. The Today show's Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer, among many others, have been mentioned as picks. But it's all guessing at this point, particularly since Williams' future remains up in the air.
But while the decision is huge for Comcast, the question of who comes after Stewart at Comedy Central is far more significant for the American people. Anchors are anchors. Some are better than others, but the job description is pretty clear.
Stewart, on the other hand, is in a whole different category. He is sui generis. He is an entertainer, not a journalist, but there is a huge journalistic component to his work. His specialty is telling truth to power. And he has had a huge impact on both politics and the news.
Beneath the cynical, smartass exterior, Stewart is clearly a man driven by moral outrage. His ability to and penchant for calling out political and media players alike on their shortcomings, on their hypocrisies, on their disgraces have become a vital part of the national conversation.
Think of that wonderful moment when Stewart went on CNN's Crossfire, that shining symbol of cable TV politics as polarizing mud wrestling, and told the hosts that they were hurting America.
Surveys showing Stewart is the leading source of news for young viewers drive the purists crazy. And Stewart is the first to remind you that he's no journalist. But The Daily Show does a great job of helping people understand the news. And in an era of social media and viral content, Stewart's most stellar moments have no trouble finding a wide audience.
On his Reliable Sources program on CNN on Sunday, Brian Stelter described Stewart as a counterweight to Fox News, and wondered who or what would step into that role post-Stewart. But that's a misreading of Stewart, as Carl Bernstein quickly pointed out. Sure, there is little doubt that Stewart bats left. But he is an equal-opportunity tormenter, quick to skewer those of all persuasions when they deserve it. Just ask President Obama.
Political satire is nothing new, of course, as the Saturday Night Live 40th birthday extravaganza reminds us. But what Stewart has pulled off — a nightly fake news show that' tells us so much about reality — is distinctive, and not easily replicated. Stephen Colbert was quite effective on The Colbert Report, a Daily Show spinoff. When he was at his best on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann could brilliantly mix news and entertainment, although with a much more partisan edge than Stewart.
Jon Stewart has brought a remarkable combination of gifts to bear on The Daily Show. The question isn't so much who will replace him as can he be replaced.