Jon Stewart extends ‘Daily Show’ contract through 2026

Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” will live to see another day — or another year. The Emmy Award-winning funnyman has extended his contract to host and executive produce the late-night comedy series through 2026.

Paramount, now owned by Skydance Corp., announced Monday that Stewart will continue to lead the long-running, New York City-headquartered Comedy Central juggernaut, appearing on camera every Monday and continuing to produce the series through December 2026.

Current “Daily Show” anchors and correspondents — Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta and Desi Lydic — will continue to share hosting duties from Tuesday through Thursday.

“Jon Stewart continues to elevate the genre he created. His return is an ongoing commitment to the incisive comedy and sharp commentary that define The Daily Show,” Comedy Central chief Ari Pearce said in the announcement. “The renewal is a win for audiences, for Comedy Central and for all our programming partners. We’re proud to support Jon and the extraordinary news team.”

“The Daily Show” recently scored its highest quarterly rating in four years and biggest share in 10 years, according to a network spokesman.

In July, Stewart confessed he wasn’t sure of his future with the show amid CBS’ decision to nix “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Like CBS, Comedy Central is owned by Paramount Global, which was in the midst of a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media over the summer.

Industry insiders speculated that executives at Skydance had been scrutinizing the liberal-leaning Colbert, as well as Stewart, about their content about the Trump administration.

“They haven’t called me and said, ‘Don’t get too comfortable in that office, Stewart,” he responded to a viewer question on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” podcast.

“The Daily Show” premiered in 1996, first with Craig Kilborn as host before Stewart took over in 1999. He remained with the program until 2015, then returned in 2024 as a part-time host. The show remains the longest-running program on Comedy Central, and has won 28 Primetime Emmy Awards in its nearly three decades on TV.