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Think back... way back, to the days of flannel and Doc Martens. To the Gin Blossoms and Hootie. The O.J. Simpson trial. Gen-X angst.
The Jon Stewart Show began on MTV in 1993 in a half-hour format. When Paramount, Viacom, and MTV became one big entity (which you can read all about here), the show went into syndication and essentially took over the spot left empty by Arsenio Hall's departure from late night. Everyone had high hopes for the show; Jon had a lot of heat, great word-of-mouth, and a proven track record on MTV. The show had been sold to approx. 140 stations before its debut, and continued to expand into new markets. Jon was seen as a worthy competitor to go against Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a show that most felt was slowly heading towards cancellation. In fact, a few NBC stations were so bold as to bump Late Night in favour of JSS. Jon didn't compete against Conan everywhere, but did so in some key markets including New York. What's Syndication? Simply put, syndication means that a show is produced and is sold to individual stations, instead of a whole network. For example, JSS was shown on CBS in Detroit and on FOX in Rochester, NY. These stations can show the program whenever they like. Syndication confuses a lot of people, so you'll often see it referred to some places as "Jon's CBS show" or "that ABC show Jon had". The syndicated incarnation of the Jon Stewart Show debuted on Sept. 12, 1994. It held steady ratings in the 1.0 - 2.0 range. Could have been worse, but it was a long way from phenomenal. The following appeared in the January 3, 1995 issue of Late Show News: " Fred Graver, formerly of _Late Night with David Letterman,_ who tells LATE SHOW NEWS that Paramount needed to show up at this month's confab of t.v. executives "with some heads on a plate" to demonstrate its commitment to improving Talk Stew. It may also be that Par was upset with Graver's decision to start bringing guests out before the first break instead of reeling off a comedy bit like Dave, Jay, Conan, and Greg do. In addition, three other key players, including both talent bookers, have left more or less under duress." Don'tcha just love showbiz. Jon announced his show's cancellation on the Late Show with David Letterman on June 7, 1995. Jon's show was in reruns that week, but came back for 2 weeks of new shows before the plug was finally pulled. The final episode aired on June 23, with guests David Letterman, Kevin Meaney, and musical group Buffalo Tom. There were rumblings that Jon would be hired by ABC or FOX to strengthen their late-night schedules, but nothing came of it (sounds a little like the rumours of March 2002, doesn't it?) But what kind of story would this be without a happy ending? Most of Jon's writers went on to very successful projects, director Beth McCarthy moved on to SNL and was nominated for an Emmy, and Jon of course went on to host the Daily Show. |