Herb Rotfeld sent me this regarding last Monday evening's Daily Show…
I finally watched the Ken Buck interview on Peacock-plus. And yet, the most striking item I witnessed has not generated much attention, or so it seems. Mr. Buck made a comment that generated a loud derisive negative audience response. Stewart immediately called them to stop, told them to not do that — "the tickets are free" — and jokingly-tone threatened to have the impolite people removed by security.
I can't think of any host with a political guest that would do that to their home crowd.
I don't think it's that unique, Herb. Keep in mind that a lot of shows that have political guests don't have studio audiences. Bill Maher does and I'm pretty sure I've seen him do that. And the shows like Colbert's or Kimmel's rarely have on the kind of person who might get booed, nor do they often lead guests into those subject areas.
But I do think Jon Stewart's interviews are somewhat unique because, first of all, he strikes a near-perfect balance between being funny and being an interviewer. Secondly, he's always well-prepared and not just because he read the notes that some Talent Coordinator prepared for him. Thirdly, because he doesn't ask obvious questions for which the guests have developed rote answers. And fourthly, because those interviewers often involve two people with different points of view expressing them and challenging each other…you know, the way two smart people might intelligently discuss politics.
The other night, the guest was George Conway but unfortunately, the host was Ronny Chieng, who's pretty funny on the show but he asked obvious questions, didn't challenge anything his guest said, fawned a bit too much. Here, take a look…
I don't think that was a good interview, at least by Daily Show standards. I wish Conway had been on with Jon Stewart because things would have gone way deeper.