No one at “The Daily Show” anticipated Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, even if they recognized a significant loss of momentum for him, but they certainly aren’t complaining about the switch to Kamala Harris as the DNC gets underway.
“It was very refreshing for us because we have been in the Joe Biden versus Donald Trump minds for five years now, so there wasn’t a lot more to plumb when it comes to jokes about them or the perspectives or thoughts about them,” co-executive producer and writer Zhubin Parang told TheWrap ahead of their run of shows from Chicago’s DNC.
He added, “Joe Biden was becoming a bit more depressing every day to talk about and to show a video of. So this made talking about the campaign a lot more fun. It suddenly felt like a real campaign, and a real battle, and a real match of foes, and less of a slow, sad coronation ceremony that was taking months to get through.”
The duo also noted that their writers’ room has found “joy” in the twist, as it opens up what Jon Stewart and the other hosts can talk and joke about on air.
Biden’s dropout also proved to reinvigorate “Daily Show” viewers, with showrunner and co-executive producer Jen Flanz adding they saw a notable jump in the show’s social media engagement as soon as Biden dropped from the race.
Really, pivoting is what “The Daily Show” does best. It’s kind of the core of how they craft each night’s episode.
“I mean, what we really do is we make a backup plan, and then we expect to pivot and change,” Flanz explained.
According to the EPs, no episode is truly final until the camera actually starts rolling. Scripts get rewritten based on any major events or breaking news, and sometimes, an entire day’s work is thrown out because of it (a recent example being Donald Trump’s appearance at the NABJ conference).
“It’s the best and worst part of our job,” Parang joked.
As Flanz detailed, a typical show aims to have a rehearsal script blocked by about 1:30 p.m., and then the writers adjust as needed. But this week, the Comedy Central show descends on Chicago for the Democratic National Convention.
They’ll pre-tape each day, culminating with a live show hosted by Jon Stewart on Thursday night after Harris accepts the nomination and speaks to the crowd at the DNC. And, according to the duo, the nuances of topics will certainly be different than they were planning for just a few weeks ago, but the topics themselves — as well as the process of crafting “The Daily Show” — don’t necessarily change all that much.
Flanz noted that typically the writers’ room predicts what issues might come up on the ground, and then a game-time decision is made when it comes to the specifics. The same will happen in Chicago. For Stewart’s live show on Thursday, Stewart, Flanz, Parang and the team will watch Kamala Harris’ speech together live, and craft the show as they go along.
“On a deeper level, we’re always prepared to sort of look at something with that kind of eye, and then the day-of jokes, they’re easy to write once you have a perspective like that,” Parang explained.
Indeed, one of the big topics in this election cycle is abortion, which the show touches on quite often. Predictably, it earned some of the loudest applause from the live audience on Monday night’s show as they poked fun at the giant inflatable IUD that was set up in Chicago near the convention center.
A massive event like the DNC also provides “The Daily Show” with “a great opportunity” to mentor their newest members of the news team — this year it’s Josh Johnson, Grace Kuhlenschmidt and Troy Iwata — by pairing them up with veterans like Michael Kosta, Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic and Ronny Chieng.
More than anything though, “The Daily Show” just wants to bring some levity and clarity to the politics happening in Chicago this week, and encourage voters to seek out more information. As host Michael Kosta noted to Monday night’s live audience, he loves “The Daily Show” best when it’s just being silly.
“Whatever we’re talking about on the show, you kind of hope the audience grabs onto it, and is like, ‘Oh, I know a little now. Now let me go Google it or read about it and try and learn,’” Flanz explained. “Like, we give you a very top coat version of learning about things, but I think the hope is always that it inspires people to want to learn more.”
Flanz, Parang and their team relish the chance to adapt to major news events, and particularly in a new city. After safety concerns in the wake of Donald Trump’s shooting in Milwaukee forced “The Daily Show” to pull out of their planned live shows at the RNC, the team was excited to get out and explore Chicago.
“Every time we go to new city, we always want to go through and see the city and have fun with its environment as atmosphere and the kind of people there,” Parang said. “So we have a lot of options. Not just the convention, but also, we’re gonna send someone out to Chicago and do a piece on that, and we’ll talk about the news happening there. It’s almost too much.”
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
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