Jon Stewart Reveals Why He Quit 'The Daily Show'

Jon Stewart's reason for quitting The Daily Show may surprise you. Stewart spoke to The Guardian's Hadley Freeman about his decision to leave the news satire show, and revealed that he didn't exit because he was unhappy as the host, or because of a defining moment that made it clear to him it was time to go. Actually, Stewart said hosting The Daily Show was “the most perfect job in the world.” He told Freeman, “Life doesn’t really work that way, with a finger pointing at you out of the sky, saying, ‘Leave now!’ That only happens when you’re fired, and trust me, I know about that.”

Rather, Stewart said he was burned out by years of election coverage, and wasn't "getting the same satisfaction" from the job as he once did. “It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working any more, or that I didn’t know how to do it. It was more, ‘Yup, it’s working. But I’m not getting the same satisfaction,’” Stewart said. “I’d covered an election four times, and it didn’t appear that there was going to be anything wildly different about this one.” Basically, Stewart isn't Ready For Hillary, or at least, he isn't ready to cover Ready For Hillary.

Toward the end of his Daily Show career, Stewart said the demands of "relentless" news coverage started to take a toll. “Watching these channels all day is incredibly depressing,” he said. “I live in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don’t get turd lung disease.” Hopefully Stewart and his successor Trevor Noah remain Turd Lung Disease free.

Image: Comedy Central (1); Giphy (2)