I think Jon Stewart is one of the best interviewers on TV, especially with politicians and intellectuals. The only thing I dislike- and this is spoken as someone who’s closer to liberal than conservative- is that if he has a conservative on the audience is going to boo and hiss the conservative and cheer Jon whenever he makes a point (and admittedly he can be a good debater, but…). I sometimes wish the more serious interviews were filmed without an audience.
As for how he interviews entertainers, one of the more startling moments was when Dennis Leary was the guest on the first episode after Gaby Giffords was shot. Jon said in an opening segment (I’m paraphrasing) “I’m going to bring out Dennis Leary, he and I will insult each other playfully and talk about his upcoming project and not mention Giffords”. He was basically saying “Tonight’s interview is fluff, but we need fluff”.
I love Stewart’s interviews, and I disagree that he doesn’t give authors a chance to really discuss their books. There’s a whole shelf in the singular household full of books I only heard about through the Daily Show, and a couple from Colbert as well.
I did love the interview with Ashley - it reminds me of when he attacked Sarah Palin while in character. Brilliant!
I love that Firefox doesn’t recognize the word Palin, and one of the suggestions for an alternate word is “pain”.
I just watched Colbert interview Bill Maher. Colbert talking over Maher really seems to have angered Maher. Colberts numbers are falling and he is now 4th in late night.
Username/post combo of comedic value. At 3 a.m. at least. :o
On the old Colbert show, he was playing a character, and interviewees knew that the character was not going to follow standard talk show protocol.
The question is, now that he’s got a conventional talk show, is he proving to be a good interviewer?
No. He’s awful.
It occurs to me, after seeing this zombie, that I haven’t watched a single episode of either The Daily Show since Stewart’s departure, or Colbert’s new show.