Author: Marisa Guthrie

Michele Ganeless

Jon Stewart will be difficult to replace, but Comedy Central executives are confident that they can find the right person to build upon Stewart’s legacy.

“This certainly is a moment of big change for us at 11 o’clock,” Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless tells The Hollywood Reporter, “but we’ve never been in a better position to find the next great voice.”

Watch more Emotional Jon Stewart Addresses Retirement on Air: “It’s Been an Absolute Privilege” (Video)

The Daily Show has a roster of correspondents who could slide into Stewart’s seat: Aasif Mandvi, Samantha Bee or her husband, Jason Jones. And the network also has relationships with rising stars including Amy Schumer and Chris Hardwick, both of whom have their own shows on Comedy Central. But Stewart’s departure later this year after nearly 17 years behind The Daily Show‘s fake news desk will cap a period of great churn at the network, with protégés Stephen Colbert and John Oliver already gone. A formal search has yet to begin, but Ganeless stresses that The Daily Show, on which Stewart is also the executive producer, will retain its topical format while the content will evolve with the new host.

It’s unclear if Stewart wants to retain a behind-the-scenes role on the show going forward. So far he has not tipped his hand about who he thinks might be a suitable heir apparent on the show that he built into a cultural touchstone. But Ganeless says she would obviously be open to input from Stewart.

Read more How Jon Stewart Earned His Moment of Zen

“He cares deeply about The Daily Show and its evolution and his legacy,” she says.

In fact it was Stewart, not Comedy Central executives, who chose Larry Wilmore to replace Colbert. He came up with the format, and approached the Daily Show‘s “Senior Black Correspondent” about the opportunity.

Asked if it’s harder to keep talent in the fold at a time of heightened competition for content, Ganeless points toward the network’s “deep bench” of veterans including South Park‘s Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Key & Peele‘s Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key.

“People come here and they share their talents for however long they feel creatively fulfilled,” she reasons. “Stephen Colbert was a part of the network for almost 20 years. John Oliver was part of The Daily Show for eight years. I’m obviously wistful about Jon’s decision to move on. But I understand it. It’s a hard gig, that Daily Show — I don’t think there’s a harder job in television.”

Stewart revealed his plans to Comedy Central executives over the holidays, though they were not under any illusions that they would get him to sign another long-term deal when his current pact runs out this September.

Read More Jon Stewart on Directorial Debut ‘Rosewater,’ His ‘Daily Show’ Future and Those Israel-Gaza Comments

The timing of Stewart’s exit also has yet to be determined. And Ganeless notes that he may stay beyond September. In his announcement on the show Tuesday night, Stewart said that he was “not going anywhere tomorrow.” And he admitted that he doesn’t “have any specific plans,” though he does have “a lot of ideas.”

In an interview last summer with THR, Stewart was clearly contemplating his exit:

“Look, there’s only so many ways that I know how to evolve it,” he said. “I’m sure even at this point I’ve overstayed my welcome to a good number of people.”

And he did express some fatigue with the daily demands of spinning often grim headlines into comedy gold.

“I can’t say that following the news cycle as closely as we do and trying to convert that into something either joyful or important to us doesn’t have its fraught moments,” he said.

NBC

Brian Williams

Rumors are swirling about who could replace Brian Williams as anchor of the NBC Nightly News. But there is still an effort at the highest levels of NBCUniversal to save the embattled anchor.

According to sources at the network, CEO Steve Burke along with NBCUniversal News Group CEO Pat Fili-Krushel and NBC News chief Deborah Turness are considering a scenario that would include a lengthy suspension and full-throated apology from Williams. And a decision is likely to come this week, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Williams was excluded from a meeting over the weekend with NBC executives, but he did meet with Burke at Burke’s Manhattan apartment on Tuesday morning; a meeting initiated by Burke. The two men are known to have a warm relationship; they regularly lunch together in the executive dining room at NBC’s 30 Rock headquarters.

Read more Brian Williams’ Years of Courting Celebrity May Lead to His Undoing (Guest Column)

And whether Williams can be saved also will reflect on Fili-Krushel and Turness, who was installed during the summer of 2013 by Fili-Krushel. Meanwhile, CNN has reported that Williams’ representative, Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, was spotted at 30 Rock on Monday.

Williams has led the top-rated evening newscast for most of the past ten years, though David Muir has overtaken Williams during multiple weeks since taking over ABC’s World News Tonight last fall. But recent polls suggest that Williams’ credibility among viewers has taken a major hit since it came to light last week that he embroidered his proximity to danger during a 2003 field report in Iraq. And an internal investigation led by NBC News investigative producer Richard Esposito is ongoing, with Esposito and his team interviewing producers who were in the field with Williams.

Williams is still in danger of losing his job. And numerous internal candidates have been floated in the media including Today anchors Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Willie Geist; CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla; Lester Holt, who is currently filling in for Williams; and Tom Brokaw, who preceded Williams as Nightly anchor. There have even been reports that NBC brass have considered bringing Katie Couric back, though Couric tweeted that those rumors are untrue. .

Lauer and Guthrie both just signed long-term deals that keep them at Today, so their contracts would have to be re-opened. And Today, a far more financially valuable franchise, has actually made some ratings in-roads of late. For the last three weeks of January, Today bested ABC’s top-rated Good Morning America for seven days in the critical 25-54 demographic.

Comedy Central

This story first appeared in the Sept. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Jon Stewart, a liberal darling, makes a point of challenging guests from across the ideological spectrum. Here are five of his most memorable interview with political figures from The Daily Show.

President Obama — Oct. 18, 2012
Stewart opened the interview by skewering Obama for his woeful debate performance against Republican Mitt Romney two weeks earlier and went on to grill him about the campaign’s increasingly negative tone.

Sen. John McCain — April 4, 2006
A confrontation with McCain about his rightward shift, including his decision to appear at Jerry Falwell‘s Liberty University after McCain previously had denounced Falwell as an “agent of intolerance.”

Grover Norquist — March 12, 2012
Stewart challenged the Tea Party favorite on his Taxpayer Protection Pledge — a promise to vote against any tax increases, signed by a vast majority of Republicans in Congress — labeling it as “pandering.”

Al Gore — Jan. 30, 2013
Stewart questioned the self-proclaimed environmentalist’s motivations for selling his cable network Current for $500 million to “fossil fuel-backed” buyer Al-Jazeera, owned by the oil-wealthy emirate of Qatar.

Hillary Clinton — July 15, 2014
Mixing it up with the presumptive 2016 presidential contender, Stewart grilled her on Israel’s military action, her comments about being “dead broke” when she and President Clinton left the White House and whether she’s actually running.