Jon Stewart\u2019s biting satire may have made his new bosses squirm, but they went ahead and extended the comedian\u2019s run on Comedy Central through December 2026.<\/p>\n
The channel\u2019s parent company, Paramount, announced Monday that Stewart will continue to host \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d on Monday nights and serve as an executive producer through the end of next year.<\/p>\n
Members of the show\u2019s news team will continue to share Tuesday-through-Thursday hosting duties. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cJon Stewart continues to elevate the genre he created. His return is an ongoing commitment to the incisive comedy and sharp commentary that define The Daily Show,\u201d Ari Pearce, Comedy Central\u2019s manager, said in a prepared statement. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to support Jon and the extraordinary news team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart\u2019s contract was re-upped nearly four months after Paramount-owned sister network CBS notified Stephen Colbert<\/a>, who rose to fame on \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d that it was dumping his late night show at the end of the season. The cancellation was revealed days after Colbert lambasted a $16-million settlement Paramount agreed to pay President Trump to end a lawsuit over edits to \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d Colbert called the arrangement \u201ca big fat bribe.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Paramount settled the Trump suit to win approval from the Trump administration of its sale to David Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media<\/a> and RedBird Capital Partners. CBS has said the reason for Colbert\u2019s cancellation was financial, not political, although many people have expressed doubts.<\/p>\n Ellison took ownership of Paramount in August. Stewart has joked that he, too, might be tossed as the company tries to reposition itself to the political center.<\/p>\n Since taking over the media firm that also includes MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures movie studio, the company has made big bets, including agreeing to pay $7.7 billion for rights to UFC fights and $1.25 billion over five years to Matt Stone and Trey Parker to continue creating their \u201cSouth Park\u201d cartoon for Comedy Central and the Paramount+ streaming service. Ellison and his team also lured Matt and Ross Duffer, the duo behind \u201cStranger Things,\u201d from Netflix and paid $150 million to buy the Free Press and bring its co-founder, Bari Weiss, to the company as CBS News editor in chief.<\/p>\n Paramount also signed a 10-year lease on a film and television production facility under construction in New Jersey.<\/p>\n