If you haven’t heard by now, Jon Stewart is taking a small leave of absence from The Daily Show to direct a movie based on a piece he did on the show a couple years back. While he’s gone, John Oliver is going to be taking over hosting duties, which is freaking people’s sh!t out because (A) THINGS ARE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT! AIIIIEEEEE! and (B) Apparently, Oliver hasn’t done any dry-runs at the desk, which people are assuming means he’s going to blow it. To quell people’s fears, Oliver spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming gig …
Oliver was talking to EW ahead of his three-month stint standing in for Jon Stewart as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show while Stewart is directing his first movie, the drama Rosewater. Although Oliver will start fronting the show this coming Monday, the British comedian said that he has not been honing his host persona in demo shows. “No, because we have to do actual shows,” said Oliver, who in addition to his regular onscreen role as “correspondent” is one of the show’s writers. “There’s no real time. There is enough time in the day for us to produce a show and not more than that. The first demo show is going to be the first show.”
Honestly, I think John is going to be just fine. He’s a gifted comedic actor and writer, he has years of stand-up experience under his belt, and he’s been on the show long enough to know the lay of the land. I’m not saying it’s not going to be a challenge, but I think he’s qualified enough to handle things.