COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART"
TAPS AASIF MANDVI TO JOIN THE "DAILY SHOW" NEWS TEAM
AS A CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK, March 12, 2007 -- Aasif Mandvi joins the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "Daily Show" News Team as a correspondent which also includes Dan Bakkedahl, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, John Oliver and Rob Riggle.
"Jon had long made it a mission to hire someone anyone whose name anagrammed to 'mafia divans.' Once it became clear Nadia Famvis wasn't interested, our second choice was fairly obvious," said David Javerbaum, executive producer.
Now in its 11th season, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" is enjoying its best ratings in series history having recorded its highest rated and most watched year in 2006. The series currently averages 1.6 million total viewers (P2+) and a 1.4 HH / 1.0 P18-49 rating (1.0 million viewers P18-49). Aasif Mandvi made his first appearance on the show as a contributor on August 9, 2006. He is the recipient of the 1999 OBIE award for his critically-acclaimed one-man show "Sakina's Restaurant." Mandvi's other New York stage credits include the 2002 Broadway revival of "OKLAHOMA!," "Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom," "Homebody/Kabul," "Suburbia," "Trudy Blue" and "Speak Truth to Power." Film and television credits include the title role in Merchant/Ivory's "The Mystic Masseur," "Music and Lyrics," "Spider-Man 2," "Freedomland," "The Siege," "Analyze This," "ABCD," "American Chai," "The War Within" "Sorry Haters," "Sex and the City," "Sleeper Cell," "The Sopranos," "The Bedford Diaries," "Oz," "CSI," "Law and Order," "Jericho," "ER," Ed and Tanner on "Tanner" directed by Robert Altman. Upcoming features include "Wedding Town," "The Understudy" and "Eavesdrop."
The nine-time Emmy and two-time Peabody Award-winning "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" was launched in the summer of 1996. The nightly news satire takes a reality-based look at news, trends, pop culture, current events, politics, sports, entertainment and the media. In each show, Stewart and a team of correspondents, including Dan Bakkedahl, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, John Oliver and Rob Riggle, comment on the day's stories employing actual news footage, taped field pieces, in-studio guests and on-the-spot coverage of important news events.
Jon Stewart and David Javerbaum are the executive producers of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" with Kahane Corn and Josh Lieb serving as co-executive producers. The series' head writer is Steve Bodow. Chuck O'Neil is the director.
Each episode of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" repeats at 1:00 a.m. the same night and at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. the following day.
COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 91 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of VIACOM Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is www.comedycentral.com.