Willa Paskin thinks John Oliver is just as good a host of The Daily Show as Jon Stewart. Based on the man's first week — and acknowledging it was just his first week — I'd say Oliver will do fine holding down the fort…but he lacks a certain warmth and wink. I like the material as much but I don't like him as much. Stewart comes across as such a nice guy that even people who disagree with the politics being presented have a hard time feeling as hostile to him as they might like. (Every time Stewart has Bill O'Reilly on, he makes this point out loud and O'Reilly just grins or hides his fondness/admiration for the guy behind an obviously-unmeant insult.)
This was the problem that faced the show when they decided which of their correspondents to stick in the host chair. All of them play hostile or abrasive roles, caricaturing newspeople who don't know what they're talking about but report nonetheless. Stewart played straightman and Voice of Reason to their eccentric and illogical reportage. Now, they had to rotate one of their Lou Costellos into the Bud Abbott role and it works okay because Oliver is so funny and the writing is still strong. But a little something is still missing for me. Maybe it'll reappear before Mr. Stewart does. There was a bit of downward trend in the preliminary ratings reports this week and it wouldn't surprise me if that became something significant.
And we await the probable ratings-hyping crossover with The Colbert Report when Mr. Colbert bursts in and tries to rescue The Daily Show from some damn foreigner…