Jon Stewart has been fronting The Daily Show since 1999 and has been doing an exceptionally good job for 15 years. Ratings are regularly awesome, fans of the show continue to flock to it in droves and at Comedy Central Stewart can mix comedy and commentary and occasionally lapse into journalism if the mood ever takes him.

Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart has been hosting The Daily Show since 1999

It’s not just viewers that have spotted the lucrative nature of Jon Stewart and his particular style and, although Chuck Todd has sat firmly in the anchor seat of NBC’s Meet the Press for a month now, it has recently been revealed he was definitely not the first choice of NBC News President Deborah Turness.

In fact, so keen were NBC on bringing the 51-year-old political satirist over to their vacant Meet the Press slot, that it has been reported they were willing to "pay anything".

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The scoop of Stewart, with his ability to bring in the coveted young audience, would certainly have been a big coo for NBC after the awkward ratings-dip at the end of David Gregory’s Meet the Press hosting tenure.

Despite how well Stewart would have fit in with NBC’s plans, it seems NBC did not fit in with Stewart’s as it would appear whatever money was on the table wasn’t good enough for the big man. And why would it be? At Comedy Central Stewart has the unique freedom to editorialise freely and say almost anything he wants, something that would almost certainly not fly at Meet the Press.

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Stewart’s sartorial muscles would have been permanently cramped at NBC unlike at Comedy Central where he has flap his wings as hard, as fast and as high as he wants.

Still not many people would have turned down an "anything" financial offer. Stewart’s stock has gone up even more. Who would have thought that possible?