Leslie Jones’ “The Daily Show” days may be behind her, but she revealed Thursday that if Jon Stewart hadn’t returned to anchor the show on Mondays in its current format, she was weighing taking over the gig on one condition: Not sharing the desk as a co-host.
“I’m a solo act,” she said.
After first taking over the desk in January 2023 as a guest host following Trevor Noah’s departure on the Comedy Central late night show, the comedian’s second guest-hosting stint that November featured her co-hosting with correspondent Jordan Klepper. Speaking with Vulture’s “Good One” podcast, she said that producers were “talking about putting us together” before Stewart returned to much fanfare.
“I was, like, ‘Nah, I’m a solo act,’ y’know?” Jones said. “I thought he was great though. Jordan is really funny.”
Still, she said she “would do ‘The Daily Show’ forever, as long as they have me.”
“‘The Daily Show’ got writers from God. Those writers over there are so freakin’ good … And then they freely let you be who you are. That’s what I like about ‘The Daily Show.’ They caress who I am.”
Today’s “The Daily Show” hosting format features Stewart on the desk Mondays while correspondents rotate hosting throughout the week. Before Stewart’s return in February 2024, prominent comics like Jones, Sarah Silverman, Kal Penn, Wanda Sykes and Chelsea Handler all had weeks at the desk.
Teasing another hosting gig she’d never return to, Jones went in on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” for which she hosted an episode in 2022. Saying that there was talk of her potentially replacing Ellen DeGeneres’ time slot full time, Jones said, “I went and tried that out, and I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ That was too much like ‘SNL.’”
“It wasn’t fun to do,” she said. “I didn’t find it fun. I found it pressure, and I don’t like pressure. And I felt like I’m never going to do a job like that again that makes me feel pressure.”
Jones’ third comedy special, “Leslie Jones: Life Part 2,” premiered on Peacock Oct. 24. Watch her full “Good One” episode with host Jesse David Fox below:
