In a new interview with The Guardian, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart explained the different factors that led to his decision to leave the hit show.
Among the need to spend more time with his family, Stewart said that doing the show based on today’s politics became an increasingly redundant, leaving him wondering if there were other ways to “skin this cat.”
“It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working any more,” Stewart said, “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.’”
“These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it’s OK. But the cycles become longer and maybe more entrenched, and that’s when you realize, ‘OK, I’m on the back side of it now.’”
He continued.
“Honestly, it was a combination of the limitations of my brain and a format that is geared towards following an increasingly redundant process, which is our political process. I was just thinking, ‘Are there other ways to skin this cat?’
And, beyond that, it would be nice to be home when my little elves get home from school, occasionally.”