The Daily Show and Jon Stewart found themselves in a familiar place Wednesday morning — among the nominees for best variety talk series at the 2024 Emmys. The category may be just as notable, however, for the shows that didn’t make the nominee list.
The Daily Show — which won the talk series Emmy last year for Trevor Noah’s final season as host — will compete against Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert for the award at the 2024 Emmys. All four were nominated last year as well, following a change to the Emmy rules that separated host-and-guest-oriented shows from the likes of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, which was moved to (and won) the new scripted variety series category.
Stewart was also a nominee in the talk series field last year for his Apple TV+ show The Problem With Jon Stewart (which had been canceled by the time of the delayed Emmy ceremony in January).
By only nominating four series, Emmy voters left off the likes of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, YouTube’s Hot Ones and the critically hailed (though only week-long) John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A., which ran on Netflix in the spring. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was also left out, continuing a nomination drought that stretches back to 2017.
Stewart returned to The Daily Show in February, anchoring the Comedy Central program once a week (usually on Mondays); the show’s correspondents host the other three days of the week. During Stewart’s first tenure from 1999-2015, The Daily Show dominated the variety series category at the Emmys with 11 wins, including 10 in a row from 2003-12.
