Talking at a New Jersey fundraiser with Stephen Colbert over the weekend, Jon Stewart admitted that back in 1999, when he took over The Daily Show, he nearly quit after a few months, citing the “assholes” he inherited from his predecessor.
Via The Huffington Post:
“What I did not realize is, a lot of the people who worked there were assholes,” Stewart said. He ultimately decided to stick around for the job although he said that it took him about two and a half years to get comfortable. But his decision to stay came after much resistance from Kilborn’s previous staff, many of whom Stewart inherited.
I can definitely see that. Kilborn was smug at times almost to the point of insufferableness, and while it usually worked in the context of that iteration of The Daily Show, I can imagine that co-existing with the same staff — some of whom may have come over from ESPN with Kilborn — that tailored their writing toward Kilborn’s comedic pomposity might have been prickly.
Stephen Colbert, who was one of those staffers on Kilborn’s The Daily Show that Stewart inherited, also talked about his competitive relationship with Stewart after he took over, and how it shaped Colbert into the man he is today.
Colbert compared his and Stewart’s relationship to that of musicians Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen. Early in his career, Costello tried desperately to emulate Springsteen, but in failing to mimic the New Jersey rocker, Costello developed his own personal style.
“I tried to be like Jon Stewart,” Colbert explained. “And by trying to be him, I found myself.”
In the interview, Stewart also cited Hugh Grant as the worst guest he’s ever had on The Daily Show, comparing him unfavorably to past dictators who have been guest. Ouch.
Related: If you’re curious about what happened to Kilborn? In 2010, he attempted to get a syndicated show similar to his version of The Daily Show off the ground, but The Kilborn File was not extended past its six week test run. Last anyone heard, he was developing a sitcom for ABC.
(Source: HuffPo)
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/4006/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/06/Screen-shot-2013-06-18-at-9.00.41-AM-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/06/Screen-shot-2013-06-11-at-10.28.45-AM-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/06/Screen-shot-2013-06-07-at-12.57.48-PM-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/06/jon-stewart-john-oliver-150x150.jpg)
Sure, Kilborn was presumably smug, but read what people have said about Jon Stewart behind the scenes after all these years. He’s hardly a lovable teddy bear.
link it.
I’m gonna grab some coffee and then I’ll find it. Beats work.
I knew it was on here somewhere. [www.uproxx.com]
That article seems to makes sense, and yet, maybe because I’ve had too much of the Kool Aid, I just can’t see him ever being worse than others. Probably just the idea that I have liked him for so long and feel so turned off by most actual news programs that he seems like some snarky humanitarian or some bullshit I can’t quite describe so eloquently.
Don’t get me wrong, I love J-Stew, ever since his show on MTV. He’s hardly the worst guy out there, but nobody’s perfect was my point.
Being an effective leader/boss means pissing people off once in a while. Have you ever had a boss that wanted to make sure that everyone was always happy and never got their feelings hurt? It’s insufferable. Sometimes people are wrong and need to be told so. Unless he was dipping his balls in everyone’s coffee, it sounds like mostly sour grapes.
There’s always been something I haven’t quite liked about the guy. I looooooove the whole, making-people-look-stupid-with-stuff-they’ve-said type of shit, but that’s not really him – that’s the show.
The interviews bum me out more than anything. He has a lot of dumb people on that mostly go unchallenged.
Yeah, Stewart has a reputation of being a smug prick behind the scenes. Once in a while, he’ll let it slip on TV when dealing with a guest. He’ll come across as dismissive and leaving no room for discourse. Which is kind of why it’s weird him and O’Reily get along so well. Or maybe O’Reilly just doesn’t care because he’s laughing all the way to the bank?
whatever, Marc Maron has tried repeatedly to get people on WTF to even come close to saying anything bad about the guy and they always love the shit out of him. i’ll believe that over some esquire writer.
That’s some pretty weak ‘behind the scenes’ monster behaviour. He threw a newspaper? Big whoop. I have thrown much bigger and harder objects at more obviously fragile people, and I am a great guy.
In J-Stew’s defense, too, Kilby was also accused of being a monster sexist by some of his staffers. I think the moral is that stories are fun.
@Junker23: You know, regarding the non-confrontational interviews, I really prefer it that way. I mean, really I’d prefer he didn’t have the dumb people on at all, but if he has to have them on, I’d rather see them just try to find some common ground and be congenial, rather than Stewart really trying to shut the guest down. That’s not what I want from John Daily or Stephen Colbert-Report. I have to use Stewart’s Carson Tucker cop-out — it’s a comedy show; I don’t want unpleasant argumentative shit from it.
When Stewart does take someone to task, that person never changes his mind or learns anything or acknowledges that he or she might be wrong; they always just stick to whatever they came to say. There’s no dialogue, there’s just some conservative being an asshole, and Jon Stewart making good arguments against him and being applauded, which is fucking obnoxious as shit. IMO there’s no reason for that to be an interview rather than a standard play-a-clip-and-tear-it-to-shreds segment.
Burnsy, Kilborn’s stories/accusations of douchebaggery and sexism are far more wide reaching than Stewart’s which basically just comes down to this one story. not that you’re comparing the two, just noting it.
@JJ – Yeeaaaaaah, I kinda know what you mean. If Stewart were instead trading a series of essays with his guests, I’d want them to just be savage, but it’s harder when you’re literally sitting right next to the guy.
I think I’m just bitter about how his recent interview w/ Alan Simpson went. DON’T GO EASY BECAUSE HE’S OLD!
i think it’s blown out of proportion the whole “jon goes easy on his guests” thing. he’ll get into it quite often, but he keeps it cordial because the man has the future of the show to think about and it’s not going to do them any favors if he just totally takes every conservative that comes on to task and humiliates them. they’d never come on again and they’d tell all their friends to stay away too. it’s completely understandable.
Also, Craig Ferguson > Craig Kilborn.
Also, getting blown > having the flu.
Craig Kilborn has a very very punchable face.
I liked Kilborn. There, I said it.
Me too. I always enjoyed a Cup of Craigers. And you know what? It’s only Monday, but I just want to DANCE. DANCE. DANCE.
All the cool kids liked Kilborn.
i preferred (and maybe still do) Kilborn’s daily show to Stewarts. His late night show i didn’t enjoy as much
One of my greatest regrets is neglecting to take a “Bring Back Kilborn” protest sign to the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear.
The kids around here aren’t old enough to have watched. Thanks for representing from the balcony, Waldorf!
I liked Kilborn and disliked Stewart way back then, but I of course haven’t seen those shows in forever and a day, so I have no idea if I would still feel that way, or if I was just a stupid kid with shitty taste who preferred the guy that was there and hated the guy who replaced him. The latter, I expect.
Kilborn was awesome on The Daily Show. I loved the hell out of Kilborn’s style and the writing was always great, and it was really jarring when Stewart took over. For a while, it just wasn’t good and I figured it would never compare to Kilborn’s show and go off the air sooner rather than later. But once Stewart got comfortable and got the cast and direction he needed, his show eventually became superior to what Kilborn’s was.
Never liked Kilborn. I tried. And when he came back on TV I recorded a couple of his shows to see if I’d misjudged him… after all, he was a guy who’d been on The Daily Show. His shows were forgettable if not downright off-putting. Can’t remember the guests but no one seemed comfortable.
I sure could go for an Original Craig right about now. [www.youtube.com]
Are you people for real? Kilborn was like Colbert except that his narcissism and pomposity were genuine. Stewart is a national treasure.
The only positive thing I could think of for Kilborn is his stubborn insistence on having Morrissey on his show as much as possible.
Killborn’s a Morrissey fan. This explains so much.
Reads the article: “After Stewart learned that Rushdie was offended, he reached out to Islam to find out how he really felt — and the conversation did not leave Stewart confident that Islam was truly remorseful.”
I know technically that’s his name, but, you’d think they’d go with Cat Stevens, not Yusuf Islam. What do you guys think? Done intentionally to place a subliminal message about Islam or are we going to start calling ‘Charlie Sheen’ Carlos Estevez?
Huh?
He changed his name from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam, not the other way around. He changed it legally for religious purposes, not for his SAG card. Don’t make me go all Cassius Clay on your ass.
I’m glad to see Stewart didn’t blame any current problems the show might have on the previous administration.
Never thought about this before, but has anyone ever seen Kilborn and Josh Homme in the same place?
One more point about J Stew – he is one of the best interviewers working (and I’m including actual journalists in this assessment)
He has his moments. Although, he does have a tendency to get on his soapbox and that can derail some potentially good stuff.
getting on his soapbox and (at least trying) to humiliate the more extreme right wingers that come on are basically what gets me through any given week.
Point: Drew Bledsoe is the Craig Kilborn of the NFL.
Discuss.
Unfair to Bledsoe, but it does work in that the predecessor had a solid run and they gave way to someone who took it to a place no one would have thought possible. And if that metaphor is extended to Craig Ferguson and Tony Romo, that’s unfair to Ferguson.
You know that douchebag that Kilborn played in Old School. I guarantee that wasn’t a long walk for him.
Exactly what I was gonna say.