Jon Stewart is coming back to cable television for one night only. The Chicago Tribune says the longtime host of The Daily Show will be back behind the desk for ESPN Friday in Chicago, co-hosting the 7 p.m. SportsCenter with Hannah Storm at United Airlines Arena. The on-location broadcast is in honor of the Warrior Games, an athletic competition for wounded veterans of America’s armed forces.
Stewart, who hosted the Games’ opening ceremony, will also do live shots from the Warrior Games during the 6 p.m. SportsCenter before he mans the desk for the 7 p.m. broadcast. He will also take part in the late-night airing of SportsCenter, which starts at 11 p.m.
The comedian has limited his television appearances since leaving The Daily Show in 2015, occasionally appearing on Stephen Colbert’s late night show but leaving Trevor Noah to run the show on Comedy Central.
When he shows up on a broadcast it’s for a good reason, and this is no exception. Stewart is passionate about the Warriors Games getting a bigger spotlight in the national sports stage.
Stewart attended last year’s Warrior Games, held at West Point, and he recently told the Chicago Tribune that he had the idea then that they should be televised on ESPN. “It was great, but it was [just] the athletes, their families, their caregivers and it felt like something that the public should be involved in,” Stewart said.
“On the way home, I was saying, ‘This is where the cameras should be, this would be perfect for ESPN.’ And my son just said, ‘Well, why don’t you call them?'”
With Stewart at the helm those SportsCenter broadcasts might get a bit of a ratings bump, but it’s also a great opportunity for the Warrior Games to get some much-deserved shine in the way of a national television audience.
