--- description: The host announced on Tuesday that he'll be leaving the show title: Read What Jon Stewart Had to Say About His First 'Daily Show' Episode image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5097a3ccfced1de3/69877e99e53abae8db4d7838/jon-stewart-daily-show.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read What Jon Stewart Had to Say About His First _Daily Show_ Episode  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:49 PM CUTPublished: Feb 11, 2015 2:14 AM CUT  Comedy Central/Everett  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:49 PM CUTPublished: Feb 11, 2015 2:14 AM CUT Jon Stewart ends his 16-year run on _The Daily Show_ on Thursday, and he’s used his stint at America’s top fake-news desk to make himself a legend. He’s interviewed the most powerful people in the world. He’s given a generation a new way of looking at the world. He’s launched the careers of some of today’s top comedy icons. But back in 1999, when Stewart first took on the gig, those achievements could hardly have been predicted. Stewart had appeared in the pages of TIME just once — with [one sentence](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,985895-2,00.html "undefined") in 1997, commenting on the fact that he’d managed to get a book deal despite a canceled TV show — and _The Daily Show_ was hardly the juggernaut it is now. Bearing _that_ in mind, fans shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that when TIME interviewed Stewart on the occasion of his first episode of _The Daily Show_ (for the Jan. 18, 1999, issue; the episode aired Jan. 11), what he had to say about the new job was…not much. He joked with TIME’s Joel Stein about a range of silly topics, but this is all that was printed about his news-filled future: --- > “” --- While the interview is hardly chockablock with career insights, it does call to mind one fun factoid that _The_ _Daily Show_ fans may have forgotten in the decade-plus that’s passed: shortly before Stewart took over _The Daily Show_, he appeared on _The Larry Sanders Show_ as a possible replacement for Larry on that fictional talk show. Though that plot was merely fictional, Stewart’s thoughts on its end offer a look at his feelings about the conclusion of any TV run: when it’s over, let it end. “You’re in that After M\*A\*S\*H scenario,” he said at the time. “Guys are in a meeting saying, ‘I think people would care about Radar and Klinger in Iowa.’ We saved ourselves from that.” **_Read the rest of the interview here, in the TIME archives:_** [Jon Stewart](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,990033,00.html "undefined") ### See Jon Stewart's Career Over the Years  Jon Stewart takes the reins as anchor of The Daily Show in 1999. Comedy Central/Everett  Stewart gets a cameo as Kevin Gerrity in the 1999 Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy. Columbia  Jay Leno interviews Jon Stewart on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 2000. NBC/Getty Images  Stewart plays Marion Frank Stokes in the 2002 black comedy Death to Smoochy Warner Bros.  Jon Stewart and his team win the first of many Emmys for The Daily Show in 2003. Chris Weeks—FilmMagic/Getty Images  Jon Stewart hosts the 78th Academy Awards in 2006. Academy of Motion Picture Arts—WireImage/Getty Images  Stewart has a cameo as himself on The Simpsons in 2008 in the episode "E Pluribus Wiggum." Fox  Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart host the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear on the National Mall on Oct. 30, 2010 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images  Jon Stewart interviews President Barack Obama on The Daily Show at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, DC, Oct. 26, 2010. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images  Jon Stewart speaks at the 51st USO Armed Forces Gala & Gold Medal Dinner on Dec. 13, 2012 in New York City. Michael Loccisano—Getty Images  Stewart makes his directorial debut in the 2014 drama Rosewater. Open Road Films  Jon Stewart announces his retirement for the end of 2015. 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