God fuck no. Russell Brand is a fucking idiot on any topic he doesn't first research, and makes your average SJW look like a fucking NeoCon in comparison. He also looks like a street corner hobo heroin junky.
Yeah, finding someone funny is going to be the easy part. There's no shortage of comedians I can think of who are talented and funny enough to carry a half hour show. But, if TDS wants to keep the same set up they have now, they also need someone that can command a certain level of respect. At the core, TDS is still meant to be a parody of 24 hour news network shows, so you need someone who can believably fill the role of a news host. While Jon obviously does a lot of goofing off himself, he is also often the straight man or voice of reason when it comes to interacting with other correspondents, an interaction that wouldn't work if neither person is asking serious questions. Satire doesn't work as well unless there is some semblance of seriousness to it.
I don't understand the things he says sometimes. Its hard to keep tuned into his cadence when telling a joke.
And a lot of people didn't think he could fill Kilborn's shoes at the time of his taking over the show either.
To be fair, he really never did, and I don't think he ever intended to. His taking over The Daily Show shifted the tone more to being political commentary very early on.
Fox News does so well in the ratings because Roger Ailes tapped into the talk radio model of coloring the entire TV news media purveyors of liberal bias indoctrinating the masses. The market segment that was receptive to that message had largely abandoned TV news media as their primary source of news by the 90's. Fox gave them a TV source for news and no one else has tried to go toe-to-toe with them over it. CNBC probably has the biggest crossover with Fox for their viewership. Meanwhile, the rest of the TV news media divvies up the remainder of the viewers and while that is larger than Fox's demo, none of them have that built in hard draw for a large chunk of it the way Fox does.
I actually loved the old Kilborn daily show and was skeptical at first. I was somewhat familiar with Stewart from his stand up but had no idea what the show was about to become. I missed the old school moment of zen for a long time though.
That article is just plain terrible, and it completely takes itself far too seriously. Anyone who thinks that article is spreading truth deserves to live in their delusional world.
