Lisa Rogak - Angry Optimist

However, perhaps the most surprising bit of information to come out of the studies was that though the show—and Comedy Central—was long known as an efficient way for advertisers to reach the 18–34 demographic, after the conventions ended and the election season heated up, the average viewer actually began to grow older. According to Advertising Age , the median age of the average Daily Show viewer for the third quarter of 2004 was 35.7; in comparison, the median age for news shows on the three major networks was a whopping 60-plus. The age of the average O’Reilly viewer was pegged at 58.

The day after the Emmy ceremonies, Jon Stewart and the writing staff from The Daily Show released America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy, a mock high school history textbook that hit number one on The New York Times best-sellers list in its first week of release. While Walmart banned the book because it contained fake naked pictures of the Supreme Court justices—reimagined as cutout paper dolls— Publishers Weekly named it the Book of the Year.

“So much of what was out there already were polemics, books of emotional destruction,” said Stewart. “The idea of this is to be the emotional opposite. What’s the coldest, most analytical book you could write? A textbook! We wanted this to be an overview of the system, as opposed to a personal kick in the [balls].”

Even though the book’s publication was a personal coup not only for Stewart but for the show he had built and nurtured, perhaps the most personal and heartfelt accomplishment came when he appeared on the CNN show Crossfire on October 15, 2004, though it was at times painful to watch his exchange with host Tucker Carlson and cohost Paul Begala.

In the years since 1999 and Stewart’s debut on The Daily Show, whenever he appeared on other talk shows, he did it out of a sense of duty and obligation. Even though it was clear he’d rather be somewhere else, he was always a good guest and never ruffled any feathers. So Carlson and Begala expected nothing different despite the fact that Stewart occasionally raked the show across the coals on The Daily Show .

What had escaped everybody’s notice was that Stewart planned to do the same on their show.

When Stewart agreed to appear on the show, coming on the heels of the publication of his new book, everyone from the producers on down thought it would be a nice easy visit. Some lighthearted jabs would undoubtedly ensue, but at the end of the fourteen-minute segment, everyone would grin, shake hands, exchange a few gracious words for the sake of the audience, and then go their merry way.

But that’s not what happened at all. The first person to have a clue was Begala, who met with Stewart in the green room before the show for some chitchat. He thought that Stewart’s demeanor seemed off in some regard.

He later realized that Stewart had planned to go on the offensive from the very beginning, and in fact it was the reason why he agreed to appear on the show in the first place. “I thought he was going to push his book that had just come out, but he wanted to be more serious,” Begala remembered.

From the beginning, Stewart was out of character and unusually humorless; he didn’t smile once when speaking with Carlson. During his diatribe, he pushed his overall philosophy that claimed politicians and media are bad, and attacked both sides while saying that Crossfire was “hurting America.”

The main sticking point of the show was when Carlson accused Stewart of playing softball with Kerry on The Daily Show, the same sin Stewart was hurling at Carlson on Crossfire. “You have him on your show and you sniff his throne and you are accusing us of partisan hackery?” asked an incredulous Carlson.

“Absolutely,” Stewart replied.

Carlson: “You have got to be kidding me!”

“You are on CNN,” said Stewart, “the show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?”

After several more volleys exchanged between Stewart and the cohosts, Carlson whined, “I thought you were going to be funny.”

“No,” said Stewart, “I’m not going to be your monkey.”

Later on, Carlson reflected on the segment. “I knew he had these kinds of pretensions about being a political thinker, but I didn’t take him seriously and I don’t take him seriously now,” he said. “I was shocked by the preachiness of it, and was kind of embarrassed for him.”

Whatever Carlson thought, the exchange attracted the attention of viewers, critics, and CNN.

“When Stewart snapped at Tucker that way, it was one of those flash points in television,” said David Hinckley. “We’ve got this era now when reality TV means anything but reality, so you get a moment like that on Crossfire and think, whoa . It’s like you’ve been slapped in the face. This was real.”

However, other critics weren’t buying Stewart’s defense. “The puppet thing is just his way of deflecting,” said Rachel Sklar, lawyer and former editor at The Huffington Post . “The fact is that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are more than just shows that go on at eleven o’clock at night to a specific number of viewers. They’re picked up the next day on YouTube. They’re picked up by blogs. And they’re picked up as… genuine news stories on the Associated Press.”

Sklar wasn’t done. “He’s a good interviewer and he knows his stuff. And when people are on the show, they have genuine discussions, and sometimes they break news.”

Looking back, it’s not like the Crossfire host hadn’t been warned. In the weeks leading up to his Crossfire appearance, Stewart had appeared on several shows—including National Public Radio’s Fresh Air —touting the same ideas as a warm-up.

“Political parties are basically dedicated to figuring out how to game the system… and are actively exploiting that loophole,” he told host Terry Gross.

And his criticisms had existed years before, when Stewart characterized the tone of his show just a week into his tenure back in 1999: “ The Daily Show seems to be a nice sort of pin in the balloon,” he said.

Crossfire had expected him to be the typical convivial, slightly smirking talk-show host always ready with a quick retort or arch comment or observation to poke fun at someone in the news. But he’d shown up with a more serious agenda. In any case, while the highly charged exchange brought out the critics in some corners, it only served to cement Stewart as a hero in others.

Stewart had only two regrets about his appearance. “The reason everyone on Crossfire freaked out is that I didn’t play the role I was supposed to play. I was expected to do some funny jokes, then go have a beer with everyone.” He also noted that some critics thought he had a personal beef with Carlson because of the caustic back and forth between them, but Stewart maintains he was specifically criticizing the tone and format of the show and not the hosts.

What happened next surprised even Stewart: Crossfire was canceled shortly after his appearance. Jonathan Klein, the recently hired president of CNN, succumbed to pressure from advertisers—which was nonexistent before Stewart went on the show, though the show had also experienced lower ratings over the previous year—and announced that he’d cancel the show. “I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp,” he said. “I doubt that when the president sits down with his advisers they scream at him to bring him up to date on all of the issues. I don’t know why we don’t treat the audience with the same respect.”