The Jon Stewart Show


The Jon Stewart Show is a late night talk show that was hosted by comedian Jon Stewart. The program premiered on MTV in 1993 as a thirty-minute daily program. At the end of its first season, MTV's then-corporate sibling Paramount Domestic Television retooled the program, extended it to sixty minutes, and used it as a replacement for the canceled Arsenio Hall Show for the 1994–95 television season. While the show garnered high ratings on MTV, it was not a success in syndication and was canceled in 1995.

Guests

Celebrity guests who made appearances on the show included Howard Stern, David Letterman, Jonathan Brandis, Courteney Cox, Sherry Stringfield, Lorenzo Lamas, Bronson Pinchot, Conan O'Brien and William Shatner. The show was also popular for showcasing the type of musical guests that usually were not seen on other talk shows, such as The Breeders, King's X, Quicksand, Blind Melon, Killing Joke, Buffalo Tom, The Figgs, Diamanda Galás, Megadeth, Van Halen, Peter Murphy, Sunny Day Real Estate, Bad Religion, Naughty by Nature, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Redd Kross, Dom Pachino, Faith No More, Rocket from the Crypt, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Belly, Letters to Cleo, the Crash Test Dummies, "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Afghan Whigs, The Notorious B.I.G., Guided by Voices, Samiam, Warren Zevon, Mike Watt, Body Count, Danzig, Face to Face, Helmet, and Pop Will Eat Itself, as well as fringe sub-culture guests such as Rev. Ivan Stang of the Church of the SubGenius.
The show was produced by Madeleine Smithberg, the co-creator of The Daily Show.
One of the more memorable episodes, on June 22, 1995, featured a live performance by the American rock band Marilyn Manson of their songs "Lunchbox" and "Dope Hat" from their debut album 1994's Portrait of an American Family. The episode sparked nationwide controversy after their frontman, Marilyn Manson, set a Bible ablaze onstage, which elicited public outcry of blasphemy. The band finished their set by throwing instruments around the stage, and ended with a piggyback ride offstage on Jon Stewart. Stewart later recalled the episode in his memoir Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart, "The next night, Marilyn Manson was on, and they ended up lighting the stage on fire. I really thought somebody was going to be killed that week."
During the show's final episode, the audience was offered margaritas and taxicab rides home. This final episode featured a lengthy interview with David Letterman, who rarely appears on talk shows other than his own. The eleven members of MTV sketch show The State appeared as the last guests on the final episode of the half-hour version of the show, and The State cast members received Stewart's permission to "trash" the set with various implements of destruction. Stewart had been told to "get shit and get out" by the production company prior to the show, and during the interview, Letterman advised Stewart "cancellation should not be confused with failure."