Jon Stewart’s Favorite Daily Show Guests: White Men

A Vocativ analysis shows that Jon Stewart's most frequently recurring guests were mostly white guys

Aug 05, 2015 at 6:03 PM ET

(Photos: Reuters/Getty, Photo Illustration: Robert A. Di Ieso/Vocativ)

Jon Stewart’s departure from “The Daily Show” on Thursday is already being mourned as a major loss for progressives, but there is another side to his legacy. We’re talking, of course, about the show’s diversity problem. This has been a controversial subject for Stewart before, and now a Vocativ analysis reveals that the show’s favorite guests were practically all white men.

We analyzed the complete list of “The Daily Show’s” guests since Stewart took over in 1999. Of the top twenty most frequently recurring guests, 15 are white men and only two are women. The lone African-American in the top twenty is celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The top ten? All dudes, 90 percent white.

To be fair, Indian-born CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria is Stewart’s most frequent guest, with 19 appearances. He beat out comedian Denis Leary, who made his 17th appearance with Stewart on Tuesday. (Leary also appeared on the show three times before Stewart started as host.) Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams rounds out the top three. Tied with 14 appearances: high-profile funnymen Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell.

Things get a little bit more interesting as we move onward—although certainly no less white or male: Ricky Gervais, Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly, Bob Dole and John McCain. Moving further, past Richard Lewis, Bill Clinton and Iranian-born author Reza Aslan, we get to the list’s first woman, Sarah Vowell, who made nine appearances. (That puts her in the exalted company of Adam Sandler and Mike Huckabee, as well as David Cross.) Rounding off the top twenty with eight appearances each, there’s Ben Affleck, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Carell and deGrasse Tyson. (That actually brings us to 21, but the final four are tied. In other words, if any one of the folks above deGrasse Tyson had made another appearance, there would be no African-Americans in the top twenty.)

This analysis follows recent criticism of the show relating to race. Last month, former “Daily Show” correspondent and writer Wyatt Cenac claimed he confronted Stewart about a segment that he found racist, and was screamed at in return. In response, executive producer Steve Bodow admitted that “The Daily Show” has “blind spots” on race. It’s also been suggested that the show has “blind spots” on gender: In 2010, Jezebel interviewed several female staffers who said that the show had a “woman problem.” Our findings suggest that both are true.

In 2010, a similar survey of the show’s guests over a six-week timeframe found that 96 percent were white. Last year, Reuters looked at 45 of “The Daily Show’s” most recent guests and found that 17 were women, and only three were women of color. (The show currently lists only four female writers out of 15 total, according to ThinkProgress.)

Of course, it’s been suggested that Stewart’s replacement, Trevor Noah, signals an attempt to improve the show’s diversity problem—but, with a track record like this, Noah has his work cut out for him.

This post has been updated to reflect that there are four women writers currently working for the show.Comedy Central did not respond to a request for comment for this article.