‘Daily Show’ Host Michael Kosta Theorizes Why Paramount Didn’t Fire Jon Stewart Along With Stephen Colbert

CBS has officially canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, paving the way for their late-night programming block to be taken over by the TV equivalent of a Spirit Halloween come next May.

And while the network has claimed that the decision was made purely for financial reasons, it’s hard not to interpret the surprise move as an effort to please President Donald Trump, thus ensuring a smooth merger between CBS’ parent company Paramount and Skydance Media — especially because Trump seems so pleased about it.

But all of this does beg the question: How does Jon Stewart still have a job? 

The Daily Show’s Monday host recently stated that he isn’t going anywhere any time soon (probably), despite the fact he, too, works for a show owned by Paramount and doesn’t refrain from joking about, say, Trump’s “chronic penis insufficiency.”

Why has The Daily Show been spared by their corporate overlord’s wrath? 

Well, correspondent and part-time host Michael Kosta has some theories. On his podcast Tennis Anyone, Kosta blasted CBS’ “terrible decision” and suggested that their financial excuse doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “If it’s important to you, you would keep it. You would figure it out,” Kosta pointed out. “Do you know how much bullshit CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX puts out that loses money? It all loses money! Every once and a while something doesn’t.”

“I think they’re kowtowing to Trump,” the former tennis pro argued. “I think everybody is. Which is what authoritarian leaders want — they silence their critics.”

As for The Daily Show, Kosta speculated that they may simply have flown “under the radar because we’re on cable. Because we’re not (on) broadcast (TV), because when you check into a hotel and you turn on the TV it doesn’t just turn on (like with shows on) CBS, ABC or NBC. You have to find us.”

He also postulated that the rotating host format also could have helped to make The Daily Show less of an appealing political target. “Maybe it’s a good thing that there’s 25 Daily Show hosts,” Kosta joked. “Because it’s really easy to just point the finger at one person: Stephen Colbert. They can’t just say, ‘Kosta said this,’ like they say ‘Colbert, Colbert, Colbert.’ You know, we rotate the ball around. I don’t know, maybe that’s helpful for us?”

Kosta also suggested that the Comedy Central will likely survive, even if they’re booted off of Comedy Central: “Maybe The Daily Show is in a good position because we’re on cable and cable’s dying and they could sell us to Hulu or Netflix — why couldn’t you go to Netflix or Amazon Prime and The Daily Show’s right there?”

Of course, if the show does end up on Amazon Prime, some episodes might end up being mysteriously deleted…