Due to COVID complications, Jon Stewart (SNL, The Problem with Jon Stewart) will not host The Daily Show this week. According to Deadline, Michael Kosta, a correspondent for The Daily Show, will replace Stewart during Stewart’s absence this week.
As reported by Deadline, the show said Stewart will return next Monday, August 12, due to recently testing positive for COVID, and Kosta will host today’s special guest for the show, writer Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, Difficult Women).
There has yet to be any official statement released by Stewart, or The Daily Show, regarding Stewart’s current medical condition. The rest of the correspondents at The Daily Show have not tested positive for COVID.
Kosta took to Instagram following this news, posting “My life at @thedailyshow. Tune in tonight through Thursday to find more Kosta at the desk,” he wrote.
The other correspondents of the Daily Show, Desi Lyde (Awkward), Kosta (Crowd Goes Wild), and Ronnie Chieng (Crazy Rich Asians), will make their regularly scheduled appearances on weeknights at 11 PM ET. This week’s special guests are actor Ed Helms (The Lorax, The Office) and comedian Hannah Berner (Bravo’s Chatroom, Summer House).
Stewart struck a deal with Comedy Central to host The Daily Show every Monday until the end of the presidential election this fall, earlier this year. Since Stewart’s return, ratings have skyrocketed, even for the nights Stewart is not hosting, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
As another part of Stewart’s deal, Stewart and his manager, James Dixon, will also executively produce every episode of The Daily Show in 2025 to “shape” the future of this franchise, according to Deadline.
Stewart was retired for nearly eight years as a correspondent, but his return this February reached The Daily Show’s most-watched episode since 2018, bringing over 900,000 viewers, according to Deadline.