Jason Jones has announced he's leaving The Daily Show to star in a new series for TBS. It'll be exec-produced by him and his wife Samantha Bee but there's no announcement yet as to whether she's staying or going. The timing of this is curious. This is not a deal that was hurriedly put together since Jon Stewart announced he was abdicating. One wonders if Mr. Jones is regretting his decision to leave or if he left because he knew he was not in line for Stewart's job whenever it came open.
Whatever the reason, this suggests The Daily Show under its new host may be even more different than some of us have been thinking. Several friends and I have been discussing whether Comedy Central would try having Jones and Bee co-anchor as per one of those male/female teams that are standard in news reporting these days. Guess not.
Okay…so Oliver is out. Colbert, of course, is out. Wilmore is saying he's happy right where he is so he's probably out. Bee is probably out. Williams says she's out. I'm not feeling like the other correspondents — Klepper, Mandvi, Hodgman, Madrigal, etc. — have been treated like folks with a bigger future at that network.
Maybe Klepper but it's starting to look like someone from outside. A reader of this site wrote me to speculate they'd grab up Craig Ferguson. I'd bet serious money he isn't even under discussion. I can imagine Comedy Central offering Craig Ferguson The Craig Ferguson Show but not The Daily Show since he'd only turn it into The Craig Ferguson Show. I'm now thinking it'll be someone like James Corden — i.e., someone whose name isn't on any of the short lists circulating outside the network.
Too often, these things turn out like a really bad murder mystery…you know, the kind where when they reveal whodunnit, it's someone you never would have thought of because there were, like, no clues. I remember reading one once where the murderer turned out to be a person who had never been mentioned before in the book. This may be like that. Brace yourself, fellow speculators.