Finding out that Jon Stewart will be leaving ‘The Daily Show’ made me quite upset. I have such a crush on that man and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m going to miss him so much.
Mind you, he barely got the words out before the rumour mill went into overdrive. If he’s out, who will be in? Who’s going to present the show? More importantly: will it be a woman?
I’m not sure why we even have to focus on this in 2015, but we do. So here we are.
The Huffington Post is imploring Comedy Central to choose a new female late night host, and TIME magazine concurs. At present there are no women fronting shows of this kind. Even tried-and-tested host Chelsea Handler is taking her latest show to Netflix rather than a cable channel. I’ll quote straight from the HuffPo article on that lack of female presence: “Despite the significant amount of recent late-night turnover — James Corden is succeeding Craig Ferguson, Stephen Colbert’s exit to take over for David Letterman made way for Larry Wilmore, Seth Meyers took over for Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Fallon replaced Jay Leno — not one woman has been included in the shuffle.”
It’s also been pointed out that Comedy Central has previously had no problem with backing funny women. After all, Sarah Silverman’s show on the channel ran for three years, both ‘30 Rock’ and ‘Parks & Rec’ managed seven seasons, and ‘Inside Amy Schumer’ is boasting two million viewers per episode.
There are a couple of contenders that Daily Show viewers already know and love: correspondents Samantha Bee and Jessica Williams, though Jessica considers herself “underqualified”. They might be considered the front runners, yet there are so many funny women to choose from that it’s hard to tell.
Who do you want to see presenting The Daily Show next? Tweet us @funnywomen or leave a comment below.
Pictured: Jon Stewart, below: Samanta Bee and Jessica Williams
