1. Jon Stewart was born on Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28,1962 and is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host.
115 Facts About Jon Stewart
1. 2.
Jon Stewart hosted The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ from 2021 to 2023.
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Jon Stewart has received numerous accolades, including 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and five Peabody Awards.
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Jon Stewart was honored with the Bronze Medallion in 2019, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2022.
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Jon Stewart started as a stand-up comedian but branched into television as host of Short Attention Span Theater for Comedy Central.
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Jon Stewart has appeared in several films, including Big Daddy and Death to Smoochy.
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Jon Stewart became host of The Daily Show in 1999, where he was a writer and co-executive producer.
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Jon Stewart is the co-author of the best-selling satirical books America : A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction in 2004, and Earth : A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race in 2010.
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Jon Stewart executive produced The Colbert Report, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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Jon Stewart continued using his platform as an advocate for veterans by being instrumental in helping pass the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, which expands healthcare access and funding to veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service including burn pits.
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Jon Stewart's father, Donald Leibowitz, was an energy coordinator for the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, and his mother, Marian Leibowitz, was a teacher and later an educational consultant.
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Jon Stewart's family is Ashkenazi Jewish ; his parents had immigrated to the United States from Europe.
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Jon Stewart is the second of four sons, with older brother Lawrence and younger brothers Dan and Matthew.
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Jon Stewart's parents divorced when he was eleven years old, and he became largely estranged from his father.
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Jon Stewart has stated that he experienced much antisemitism as a child, having been bullied frequently due to his Jewish identity.
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Jon Stewart was a three-year starter in 1981,1982 and 1983 with the Tribe men's soccer team.
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Jon Stewart made his stand-up debut at The Bitter End, where one of his comedic idols, Woody Allen, began.
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Jon Stewart began using the stage name Jon Stewart by dropping his last name and changing the spelling of his middle name, Stuart, to Stewart.
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Jon Stewart has implied that the name change was due to a strained relationship with his father, with whom Stewart no longer had any contact.
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Jon Stewart became a regular at the Comedy Cellar, where he was the last performer every night.
21.
Jon Stewart said that his career did not take off until his March 6,1992, appearance on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman.
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Jon Stewart was considered to take over the show when Letterman left it, but it was given to relatively unknown Conan O'Brien.
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Jon Stewart co-hosted MTV Spring Break '93 Blind Date from Daytona Beach with Melissa Rivers.
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Later in 1993, Stewart developed The Jon Stewart Show, a talk show on MTV, which was later dropped by the network and was syndicated for its last two years.
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The Jon Stewart Show was the first talk show on that network and was an instant hit, becoming the second-highest rated MTV show, behind Beavis and Butt-Head.
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Many local affiliates had moved Hall's show to 2 am during its decline and Jon Stewart's show inherited such early morning time slots in many cities.
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Jon Stewart then became a frequent guest host for Tom Snyder on The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, which was produced by Letterman and aired after the Late Show on CBS.
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Jon Stewart's first film role was a bit part in the box-office bomb, Mixed Nuts.
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Jon Stewart landed a minor part in The First Wives Club, but his scene was deleted.
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Jon Stewart played romantic leads in the films, Playing by Heart and Wishful Thinking.
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Jon Stewart had a supporting role in the romantic comedy, Since You've Been Gone and in the horror film, The Faculty.
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Jon Stewart maintained a relationship with Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein and appeared in films they produced including, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Doogal, and the documentary, Wordplay.
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In 1997, Jon Stewart was chosen as the host and interviewer for George Carlin's tenth HBO special, George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy.
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Jon Stewart had a recurring role in The Larry Sanders Show, playing himself as an occasional substitute and possible successor to late-night talk show host Larry Sanders.
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In 1998, Jon Stewart hosted the television special, Elmopalooza, celebrating 30 years of Sesame Street.
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Jon Stewart has guest-starred on other sitcoms including The Nanny, Dr Katz, Professional Therapist, Spin City, and NewsRadio.
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Jon Stewart signed a deal with Miramax to develop projects through his company, but none of his ideas have been produced.
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Later that year, when Craig Kilborn left the show to replace Tom Snyder on The Late Late Show, Jon Stewart began hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central.
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Jon Stewart appeared in Half Baked as an "enhancement smoker" and in Big Daddy as Adam Sandler's roommate; he has joked on the Daily Show and in the documentary The Aristocrats that to get the role, he slept with Sandler.
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Jon Stewart often makes fun of his appearances in the high-profile flop, Death to Smoochy, in which he played a treacherous television executive; and the animated film Doogal, where he voiced the villain Zeebad.
41.
In 2007, Jon Stewart made a cameo appearance as himself in Evan Almighty, which starred former Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell.
42.
Until Trevor Noah permanently took over the show in 2015, Stewart hosted almost all airings of the program, except for a few occasions when correspondents such as Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, Jason Jones, and Steve Carell subbed for him, and during John Oliver's stint as host during the summer of 2013.
43.
Jon Stewart won twenty Primetime Emmy Awards for The Daily Show as either a writer or producer, and two for producing The Colbert Report, earning a total of twenty-two Primetime Emmy Awards, the most wins for a male individual.
44.
The first nine minutes of the show included a tearful Jon Stewart discussing his personal view on the event.
45.
In mid-2002, amid rumors that David Letterman was going to switch from CBS to ABC when his contract ran out, Jon Stewart was rumored as Letterman's replacement on CBS.
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In 2005, Stewart provided the voice of President James A Garfield for the audiobook version of Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation.
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In 2007, Jon Stewart voiced Mort Sinclaire, former TV comedy writer and communist, on Stephen Colbert's audiobook version of I Am America.
48.
In March 2010, Jon Stewart announced that he had optioned rights to the story of journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran for 118 days.
49.
On June 6,2011, episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart again hosted Bahari, and in March 2013, he announced that he was leaving the show for 12 weeks to direct the film version of Bahari's 2011 book, Then They Came For Me.
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The New York Times opined that Stewart is "the modern-day equivalent of Edward R Murrow" and the UK national newspaper The Independent called him the "satirist-in-chief".
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Jon Stewart said he wished the "ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on television".
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In March 2012, Jon Stewart interviewed Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone.
53.
Writer Wyatt Cenac said that Jon Stewart cursed him out after Cenac acknowledged he was uncomfortable about a June 2011 Daily Show bit about Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
54.
In March 2013, it was announced that Jon Stewart would be taking a 12-week hiatus from The Daily Show to direct the film Rosewater, which is based on the book Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari.
55.
On July 14,2014, Jon Stewart interviewed Hillary Clinton about the Middle East.
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Jon Stewart responded on his show by pointing out that the meetings were listed in the president's publicly available visitor log and that he has been asked to meet privately by many prominent individuals, including Roger Ailes of Fox News.
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Jon Stewart said Obama encouraged him not to make young Americans cynical about their government and Stewart said that his reply was that he was "skeptically idealistic".
58.
On June 19,2015, in the wake of the Charleston Church Shooting, Jon Stewart decided not to write jokes for the opening monologue.
59.
In November 2015, it was announced that Jon Stewart signed a four-year deal with HBO that would include exclusive digital content for HBO NOW, HBO Go, and other platforms.
60.
In July 2017, HBO announced Jon Stewart would produce a stand-up comedy special for the network, his first stand-up special since 1996.
61.
Jon Stewart performed standup in the 13th Annual Standup for Heroes event alongside John Oliver and Hasan Minhaj.
62.
On directing, Jon Stewart noted on Employee of the Month that The Daily Show influenced his directing process more than his acting gigs did.
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Jon Stewart directed the political satire Irresistible, released in June 2020, which follows a demoralized Democratic strategist, who helps a retired veteran run for mayor in a small, blue collar town in Wisconsin.
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On September 30,2021, Stewart's new series, The Problem with Jon Stewart, premiered on Apple TV+.
65.
In late October, Jon Stewart extended his contract by one year to remain host until the end of 2025.
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Jon Stewart has hosted the Grammy Awards twice, in 2001 and in 2002, and the 78th Academy Awards, which were held March 5,2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
67.
James Poniewozik of TIME said that Jon Stewart was a bad host, but a great "anti-host" in that he poked fun at parts of the broadcast that deserved it, which lent him a degree of authenticity with the non-Hollywood audience.
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Jon Stewart returned to host the 80th Academy Awards on February 24,2008.
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Jon Stewart is shaping up to be a dependable Oscar host for the post-Billy Crystal years.
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In December 2009, Stewart gave a speech at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts honoring Bruce Springsteen, one of that year's Kennedy Center Honors recipients, and of whom Stewart is a fan.
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Jon Stewart gave another speech paying tribute to Springsteen in February 2013 as part of the singer's MusiCares Person of the Year award ceremony.
72.
Jon Stewart began a comedic feud with WWE wrestler Seth Rollins in March 2015, and appeared on WWE Raw during a Daily Show-styled segment hosted by Rollins.
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Cena then gave Jon Stewart his finishing move, the Attitude Adjustment, to end the segment.
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Jon Stewart returned at SummerSlam on August 21,2016, as a special guest.
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In 2016, Jon Stewart joined President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and David Letterman in honoring military families on May 5 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
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Jon Stewart got into a Twitter argument with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, who in multiple tweets stated that Jon Stewart changing his name indicated that he was a fraud.
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In June 2017, Jon Stewart spoke at the funeral service for Ray Pfeifer, an FDNY firefighter from Hicksville, New York, who died after an eight-year battle with cancer as a result of service as a first responder at the September 11 attacks.
78.
Jon Stewart has said his influences include George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, David Letterman, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor.
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In 2000, when he was labeled a Democrat, Jon Stewart generally agreed, but described his political affiliation as "more socialist or independent" than Democratic.
80.
Jon Stewart has been a vocal proponent of the United States implementing a single-payer healthcare system.
81.
Jon Stewart is known as an outspoken, humorous critic of personality-driven media shows, in particular, those of the US media broadcast networks such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
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Jon Stewart stated that the show engaged in partisan hackery instead of honest debate, and said that the hosts' assertion that Crossfire is a debate show is like "saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition".
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Jon Stewart responded that he didn't realize "the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity".
84.
Jon Stewart discussed the incident on The Daily Show the following Monday:.
85.
Jon Stewart again became a viral internet phenomenon following a March 4,2009, The Daily Show sequence.
86.
In November 2009, Jon Stewart "called out" Fox News for using some footage from a previous Tea Party rally during a report on a more recent rally, making the latter event appear more highly attended than it was.
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Jon Stewart said that Carlson was dumbing herself down for "an audience who sees intellect as an elitist flaw".
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Jon Stewart stepped up his criticism of Fox News in 2010; within five months, The Daily Show had 24 segments criticizing the Fox News coverage.
89.
Bill O'Reilly, host of the talk show The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, countered that The Daily Show was a "key component of left-wing television" and that Jon Stewart loved Fox News because the network was "not boring".
90.
Jon Stewart said Fox viewers are the "most consistently misinformed" viewers of political media.
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In 2014, Jon Stewart engaged in an extended "call-out" of Fox News, based on their coverage of food stamps and US government assistance, opining that said coverage was biased.
92.
Hannity would "return fire" by calling out Jon Stewart for associating himself with Cat Stevens during his Rally in 2010.
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Jon Stewart responded to this by criticizing Hannity for frequently calling Ted Nugent a "friend and frequent guest" on his program and supporting Nugent's violent rhetoric toward Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2007.
94.
In late August 2014, Jon Stewart criticized the manner in which Fox News portrayed the events surrounding the shooting of teenager Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent protests from citizens.
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Jon Stewart was an important factor in the unionization of the Comedy Central writers.
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Seth MacFarlane wrote an inside joke into an episode of Family Guy about this, causing Jon Stewart to respond with an hour-long call in which he questioned how MacFarlane could consider himself the "moral arbiter" of Hollywood.
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Former Daily Show writer David Feldman accused Jon Stewart of being anti-union at the time and of punishing his writers for their decision to unionize by not using their material.
98.
Jon Stewart continued to be a vocal advocate, appearing on late night shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and news programs such as Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, and The Fox Report with Shepherd Smith.
99.
On September 30,2021, Stewart debuted his Apple TV+ show, The Problem with Jon Stewart by discussing the effects burn pits have had on veterans.
100.
Jon Stewart became a prominent advocate for the bill in person, on Twitter and on various cable news shows including Fox News' America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and Newsmax.
101.
On July 28,2022, Jon Stewart held a press conference on Capitol Hill where he stated:.
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Jon Stewart was praised for lending his voice and celebrity to the issue and is credited as being an essential actor in getting the bill passed.
103.
Jon Stewart stated after the bill's passing, that while it "feels good", it "shouldn't have been this hard".
104.
Jon Stewart has criticized Israel for its military and political conduct in the Palestinian territories.
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Jon Stewart's comments raise concerns about Apple's influence over content creation beyond its control of the mobile device market.
106.
Jon Stewart proposed to her through a personalized crossword puzzle created with the help of Will Shortz, crossword editor at The New York Times.
107.
Jon Stewart is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and was in attendance when Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in franchise history on June 1,2012.
108.
Jon Stewart is a fan of the New York Knicks, New York Giants, and New York Rangers.
109.
Jon Stewart is a known fan of the musical group Beastie Boys.
110.
Jon Stewart narrates a chapter written by Michael "Mike D" Diamond in the audio version of their biographical Beastie Boys Book.
111.
Jon Stewart received his third Peabody in 2016 for his tenure at The Daily Show.
112.
Jon Stewart won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2005 for his recording, America : A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction.
113.
Jon Stewart was the Class Day keynote speaker at Princeton University in 2004, and the 2008 Sacerdote Great Names speaker at Hamilton College.
114.
Jon Stewart was presented an Honorary All-America Award by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in 2006.
115.
On October 26,2010, Jon Stewart was named the Most Influential Man of 2010 by AskMen.