John Oliver has officially started his rein as The Daily Show host, taking over while regular host Jon Stewart leaves to try his hand at directing.
The British comedian and longtime correspondent on the Comedy Central news program, Oliver is using the three-month period to boost his status at the network. The Daily Show has been a launching board for many of the top comedians today, including Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Jason Jones, and Stephen Colbert.
As Jon Stewart leaves the show , he embarks on one of his first projects outside of comedy. He is directing Rosewater , a movie based on a book by BBC journalist Maziar Bahari titled, Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival . The book, and subsequent movie, are about Bahari’s experience covering the 2009 Iranian presidential election, when he was accused of being a spy and thrown into an Iranian prison for three months.
Part of the evidence to back up the charge was an appearance Bahari made on The Daily Show where correspondent Jason Jones dressed in an outlandish spy outfit.
Jon Oliver took over from Stewart last week, as Stewart turned over hosting duties to his “much classier” colleague . As he took over, Oliver joked that he would have the set re-done in pink.
“Oh wow, you’re still here,” Oliver said after the hand-off on Thursday, surprised that Stewart was still around. “Looks like we have us an awkward situation on our hands.”
Oliver took over without a beat on Monday, making fun of the NSA for the recently revealed domestic spying program. But he also made mention of the change in the host’s chair.
“Welcome to ‘The Daily Show’, I am John Oliver and let’s all just acknowledge for a moment that this is weird,” he said to start the show.
Jon Oliver has been a correspondent on The Daily Show since 2006.
