For the past eight years the Daily Show has come out the winner Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Program. The streak ends on Sunday as Stewart faces his biggest competition to date in two of his friends and some jezebel.A few months ago The Daily Show had to deal with some negative publicity after Jezebel posted an article sighting many acts of sexism on the show including a lack of female guests, few female correspondents and producers, along with the recent hiring of Olivia Munn which many viewed was based on her looks over her wit. The article made its rounds through the media with FOX News getting some knocks in, along with Daniel Tosh and Stephen Colbert poking a little fun at the issue. The whole subject more or less came to a halt once the women of the Daily Show posted an open letter on their website firing back and having a little fun of their own (especially towards the end). The whole thing by now is long forgotten as we have the attention span of small birds, but for those voters who may feel that the article had its points it may cost the host a few votes with older female voters, which could prove important if the race is close. Below are the real reasons why Stewart will lose this year.
This past weekend the Colbert Report writers claimed the EMMY for the best writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program and Colbert's character hams it up as usual after the big win. What this really indicates is that Colbert’s writing team had some of the best content in this category. While Stewart’s tone and his interviews have become a staple Colbert has recently been able to outshine Stewart in news gathering. Stewart has the advantage on Colbert as The Daily Show takes the first slot. Despite this Colbert has beat Stewart to the punch and has been "reporting" on stories a day before Stewart gets to them. Maybe that was enough to give the writing team the edge, but it helps proves that Colbert’s crew is gaining the competitive edge with fresher writing. Stewart tends to write towards specific stories while Stephen can touches upon a broader range of issues.
Meanwhile for those who don't watch the programming regularly, this year the Colbert report submitted the first episode of Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando. The week long series, besides being a tremendous tribute to the troops, is pure EMMY bait. He came out on stage every episode with golf club in hand as a constant homage to comedy legend Bob Hope. His B-block usually contained video of him with the military either trying his hand in boot camp or throwing up in the back of a jet. He had a barrage of Washington elites sending messages to the troops he was performing for. But the piece de resistance came when the Commander in Chief ordered his general to shave Stephen's hair. All this and more may be why Colbert’s show wins its first EMMY outside of the writing category.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Obama Orders Stephen's Haircut - Ray Odierno | ||||
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But wait there's more. The short lived Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien is getting a lot of press and public support and has been for the past seven months (for those keeping score at home that's exactly how long his show was on-air for). Choosing not to destroy the legacy of the house that Carson built O'Brien decided to step down as host of the tonight show. Throngs of fans showed their support for the host; unfortunately those same fans couldn't be bothered to actually watch the show. Some of the best TV came out of the last week of programming where he featured waves of fantastic guests, performances and bits that weren't all that funny as much as they were ridiculously expensive. But the clincher may have been his classy speech towards the end of his final show.
With the effort that Colbert put in this year, what he really may do is split the vote of those who enjoy smart political commentary. Conan's show had a completely different feel to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and so he will steal some of Jon's typical voters as well since all three programs speak to the same demographic. Not only that but I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to see NBC execs squirm as the man that they helped boot prove triumphant on their own network.
While I hope that this is the year that Colbert finally gets his dues but this onslaught of support will probably get Conan on the stage to accept the honor. Either with this year the streak ends for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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