John Oliver is set to takeover the Daily Show from the other side of the desk on June 10. Though Oliver is not a new face to the Daily Show, Jon Stewart has hosted the show since 1999. Stewart is set to take a break from hosting to focus on his directing debut with the film “Rosewater”.
Oliver appropriately made a joke in a statement regarding his temporary position stating, “Don’t worry, it’s still going to be everything that you love about the Daily Show, just without the thing that you love the most about it.” The Comedy Central audience will have to go without the one thing it loves most until Tuesday, September 3 as announced by the network earlier in March.
After being on the show since 2006 Oliver will be graduating to feature interviews during Stewart’s 12-week hiatus. Entertainment Weekly reports that Oliver’s first guests will be Seth Rogen, Veep’s creator Armando Iannucci, civil rights activist Mavis Staples and journalist Fareed Zakaria.
Comedy Central’s press release from May 1 referred to the show as the Daily Show with Jon Stewart despite his approaching absence. Though Stewart is set to return in September, Oliver is under a large amount of pressure to keep the exceptionally high ratings up for the Summer season.
The twelve weeks will feature two months of Oliver at the anchor desk and one month of reruns.