New Book Reports Stewart and Colbert Quit the Daily Show (briefly) in 2012

Variety reports that a new tell-all book about The Daily Show, titled The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History, reveals that back in 2012, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert both almost left the network.

The story appears to be just about some contract negotiations that cut a little closer than usual but according to the book, Stewart actually quit the show.

According to Variety, the book (by Chris Smith) paints a detailed picture of the summer 2012 negotiations between Viacom’s former CEO Philippe Dauman and talent agent James Dixon, who famously represents both Stewart and Colbert. Both hosts’ contracts were up for negotiation at the time, and despite the fact that both shows were bringing in monstrously huge ratings for Comedy Central, Dauman was resistant on the terms of Colbert’s contract. What’s more, Dixon apparently had a hard time negotiating time off for Stewart in 2013, the year he made his directorial debut with his film Rosewater. Dixon had made the two a package deal, and as the story goes, the resistance from the network led to Stewart (and by extension, Colbert) telling Dixon that he had quit.

“Yeah. There was a time when I quit,” Stewart said.  That lit the fire under Dauman that eventually pushed him to restart the negotiations, giving Stewart and Colbert their desired contracts.

The book is jam packed with behind-the-scenes information about The Daily Show’s 16+ year history, including details about how the network managed to scare correspondent John Oliver off to HBO, a move they likely regret in the wake of his newfound success there. The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History is available for purchase through various methods via the publisher’s website.

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