We will, of course, be watching Jon Stewart's last broadcast tonight. I dunno what's going to transpire except there was a rumor they were asking all his favorite targets, be they politicians or pundits, to either appear or tape something for the show. I assume we'll see a parade of past correspondents with Mr. Colbert in the most prominent position and Stewart will say something heartfelt about the staff and the support from the audience.
We shall see what we shall see. I'm padding the recording time on my Tivo just in case.
One thing to keep in mind: Jon Stewart is not dying. He's not retiring from show business. He'll do something else and it's not utterly impossible that whatever it is will cause many of his fans to say, "Gee, I'm glad he left when he did so he could do this." It doesn't seem likely but it could happen. Trevor Noah could also be a lot better than anyone expects. He will, after all, have almost all of Stewart's support team supporting him: Same producers, same writers, etc. Stewart's Daily Show was not a one-man operation and Noah will be reading a TelePrompter loaded with words from that support team.
There are folks, of course, who are happy Stewart is leaving. I suspect if I were a politician or pundit who he'd caught saying stupid or contradictory things, I'd be uncorking the bubbly. He didn't destroy any of these people — Jim Cramer still has a show — but he sure had to make some of them feel a little embarrassed at what they did for a living.
Hey, Rolling Stone has reposted their 2011 interview with Stewart and it's well worth reading.
Oh — and I was wondering what Comedy Central was going to air in that time slot until Trevor Noah's debut. Well, the next two weeks seem to be reruns of this past week and other recent episodes. Don't know if they're going to keep this going until Noah's first show on September 28 or if they have something else in mind. I hope they have something else in mind…or at least that they'll be running older Jon Stewart episodes that I don't still have in the Recently Deleted folder on my TiVo.