Quote:
Originally Posted by flameswin
My cynical theory (and I'm well aware it's most likely completely off base) is that there's something triggered by seeing certain promotions take place.
I'm not saying that Craig Fergusen and Jon Stewart are bitter people and that backing out of their respective shows is an F-you to anyone or anything, but more of a situation where they're going along doing their thing and they see David Letterman announce his retirement and Stephen Colbert get announced as the replacement.
Craig Fergusen goes; "Ah, you know what, deep down I knew I wasn't going to get promoted when he retired but that's enough of this gig for me".
Jon Stewart goes; "Stephan's amazing at what he does and thanks me for everything, but this made me realize I'm finished with doing the same show for all these years".
Again, nothing cynical on their part, but more that the move maybe caused them to reflect on what they were doing and realize maybe they had done it long enough. So not so much that they honestly thought they had a legitimate chance at it, but rather the finality of it caused the reflection that led to their decisions.
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Really doubt that for Stewart, you could tell he was getting tired of the routine long before Colbert got the new job. Plus thanks to him, he turned The Daily Show into an even bigger show than Late Night or The Tonight Show. He didn't get the ratings on cable of course, but the influence he had was far above anything Letterman or Leno had. He had a stranglehold on the coveted 25-45 age demographic in that timeslot, the major networks would have killed to have his brand. Of course going to a network would have severely limited his freedom, which is why never wanted to do it (and said as much)
I think what Colbert leaving did do was make Jon realize that without his closest collaborative partner, he was enjoying work that much less and pulled the trigger on leaving quicker