Jason Jones Leaving ‘The Daily Show’
UPDATE 2: Samantha Bee and Jason Jones’ new show will be called The Detour, according to Vulture.
UPDATE: Samantha Bee has also announced that she will be leaving The Daily Show, following a deal with TBS for a second series. Along with the scripted comedy Bee and husband Jason Jones will be executive producing, the former correspondent will also be hosting a show that will be “a platform for Bee to apply her smart and satirical point of view to current and relevant world issues,” as detailed by a press release.
Longtime Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones is leaving the fake news program after nearly a decade, announcing his departure just weeks after Jon Stewart revealed his decision to step down as host, Variety reports.
“For 9 & 1/2 years, I have worked at one of the greatest TV shows of all time,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “But… It is time for me to go.” He continued: “That said, I am ecstatic to announce that I’m about to make another great show over @tbsveryfunny.”
While many had considered Jones a possible replacement for Stewart, he and his wife, fellow Daily Show correspondent, Samantha Bee, were given a 10-episode order by TBS for a new comedy about a family who embark on a road trip to Florida that quickly goes awry.
Jones and Bee will both serve as executive producers on the as-yet-untitled sitcom, and the former will star alongside Natalie Zea, Ashley Gerasimovich and Liam Carroll. Bee, however, has yet to officially announce her departure from The Daily Show, and, depending on the extent of her role on the pair’s new show, could still be tapped as Stewart’s successor.
Jones has had a fruitful tenure on The Daily Show, traveling the globe to report on everything from the “real Americans” of Wasilla, Alaska — the hometown of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — to the not-so evil residents of Iran. The latter segment included an interview with Maziar Bahari, the Iranian-Canadian journalist who, partly due to that interview, was incarcerated and subsequently became the subject of Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater. More recently, Jones garnered attention for a controversial interview with several diehard Washington Redskins fans about the football team’s controversial name.