If you didn’t didn’t believe the reports that NBC News was ready to back up a Brinks truck in order to convince the “Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart to assume the hosting duties at “Meet the Press,” Stewart himself confirmed the offer to Rolling Stone:
In an new interview with Rolling Stone, Stewart confirms that there were indeed discussions. “My guess is they were casting as wide and as weird a net as they could,” he says. “I’m sure part of them was thinking, ‘Why don’t we just make it a variety show?'”
Stewart says he never seriously considered taking the gig. “I felt like that was one of those situations,” he says, “where someone says, ‘We really like what you do. Why don’t you come over here and do something different, maybe something you don’t do as well, for us?’ I can understand notionally where it comes from. News and entertainment have melded in a way. But they would be overcompensating on the entertainment side. That’s certainly not an outlandish decision, although I don’t necessarily think that’s the best direction for it.”
The “Meet the Press” gig eventually ended up in the hands of Chuck Todd.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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