Interview: ‘The Daily Show’ Host Michael Kosta Discusses His Emmy Nomination

Michael Kosta is a veteran comedian who started his career as a tennis pro, ranking #864 in the world (#501 in doubles). He made the turn to stand up in 2005, and went on to co-host Fox Sports 1’s Crowd Goes Wild opposite Regis Philbin and was a regular Correspondent for The Soup Investigates with Joel McHale. He joined The Daily Show in 2017 and now splits hosting duties with the recently returned Jon Stewart, as well as Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, and Ronny Chieng. Kosta can now add Emmy nominee to his resume, as The Daily Show has earned a nod for Outstanding Talk Series. 

We talked to Kosta about hosting the long-running series, his writing process and his hectic schedule. 

Well, first of all, thanks for being here, and congratulations on the Emmy nomination.Well deserved. 

Thank you. Very exciting.

I spoke with Desi the other day, and I’m going to say the same thing to you as I said to her. Congratulations on a relatively slow and uneventful election news cycle.

Yeah. I’ll tell you what, it can get worse. I keep thinking, “Oh, that’s it, that’s the pinnacle, the debate, assassination attempt, changing the candidate,” but it just might keep going.

You hosted last week, and you got to cover the announcement of Tim Walz, the RFK Jr. bear story and Trump’s press conference. Not a bad week.

No, and The Daily Show machine works whether there’s news cycles or not. The Daily Show machine works whether there’s good headlines or not. But it really is fun when you’ve got fun stuff to talk about.

This isn’t your first hosting gig. You’ve done a lot of hosting in the past, but how does this differ from your previous hosting experience? 

It’s a good question. For one, I care the most about this in the sense that I grew up consuming and loving The Daily Show. It’s just one of those American institutions that helped raise me along with my parents. It’s a great show that I’m so proud to be a part of, so I don’t want to screw it up. I’ve had some shows on some other channels. If you screw it up, it’s like, “Well, I didn’t really grow up watching The E! Network.” Also, what can be hard and what’s fun about the challenge of hosting The Daily Show is that these are important topics. RFK Jr. dumping a bear cub, maybe not, but who’s going to be our vice president and might become our president. This is important. So there are real stakes. I want to be funny. That’s my first goal. But I also want to take it seriously and understand the story and understand the ramifications for all involved.

There were studies that came out back when Jon was hosting the first time that a lot of people within a certain age bracket were getting their news from The Daily Show. Is that something that weighs on you at all? 

It doesn’t weigh on me, but I’m certainly aware of it. But, I think the reason people trust us for the news is because they know we’re here to entertain them and they’re going to learn some stuff along the way. People are tuning in to laugh and to get a sane perspective on this insanity around us. We do not sit in the writer’s room and go, “Now Americans need their news today.” We go, “What’s the story? Oh, Trump just rambled for an hour and a half for no reason at all in front of Mar-a-Lago. Well, we have to share that with people. And let’s find the clip where he says he was more popular than MLK Jr.”

I feel there’s a lot of ‘a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’ when it comes to some of the news that you’re covering. 

Yeah, I love that. I love that. And, you know, Jon Stewart is so good at calling out bullshit, whoever it is. And that also makes our viewers trust us.

Speaking of Jon, can you talk about the atmosphere at the show? After Trevor left, I imagine you were probably uncertain as to the future of the show. Can you talk about how the atmosphere changed when Jon came back? 

Yeah. Well, it goes back even before Trevor left. It goes back to the show is doing great. Emmy nominations. Trevor as host. COVID. Trevor and the show decide we’re not going to take a break. We’re going to keep going through COVID, and millions of Americans watched us during COVID as The Daily Show was shot on an iPhone 10 in Trevor’s apartment.

You got really laid back, Trevor, is what you got. 

You got laid back, Trevor, but you also got Trevor talking about George Floyd. I mean, that’s a that’s a burden that he he took on extremely…I don’t want to call it a burden, but he just a tough news cycle where the whole world was looking at Trevor and he’s in his apartment having to share this. So, it became a lot. And I think the daily rigmarole of putting out this show became a lot. I think it can it can erode you. I just did four days. I’m tired. My throat is is hoarse, but Jon Stewart did it for 16 years before Trevor did it for seven. Those are feats.

There was uncertainty. We had rotating hosts, which was fun. But the writers do their best when they can sink their teeth in a point of view. “Hey, Kosta’s on this week. I know he likes this. This is a great joke he can do.” So, when we got Jon back, it it it steadied the ship. The Daily Show wasn’t going anywhere. It’s been on air for 29 years. It’s a beast. I’ve called it an American institution before, I’ll call it again. But Jon came back, it was like when the head coach walks in the locker room. The team is still a good football team, but they kind of settle down a little bit and they go, “Let’s look at him for a second.”

You mentioned the writers. You’ve consistently got a solid writing staff, but you come from a stand up background where you are writing for yourself. How was it having the writing staff write for your voice? Was that something that came naturally? Was it something you had to work with them on? How did how did that work? 

It’s hard for me. Not that it’s hard working together. It was an adjustment for me, a stand up comic who writes everything he says to now be in a room collaborating. One of the things that I learned immediately was that these people in the room, you can trust them and they are funny. My my skepticism was up. I’m stand up. You don’t tell me what to think. I know what I’ll think and I’ll share it with you. So, I say stand up comedy is my individual sport and The Daily Show is my team sport.  You’re gonna hear a lot of sport references from me, Jeff. I’m sorry.

It is incredibly rewarding and more fun when you when you pull it off successfully at The Daily Show because you’re with people and you work together on that thing. And I did have to calm the ego down and say, “Hey, that guy has five Emmys. That woman has six Emmys for writing. Let them write for you and work with them.” And here we are. And I’m thankful that I had the intelligence to slow down and back off a little bit.

What was your relationship to politics before the show? Because your stand up is not politically driven at all. 

Yeah, I would say, Michigander, but grew up in Ann Arbor, so we had this progressive little pocket. My mom took me to go see Bill Clinton give a speech on the campaign trail when I was 10. But then you drive 20 minutes out and it was the Michigan militia and a much different vibe. So I grew up very center based. This was the 80s. You just didn’t really talk about politics. People would come over for dinner, or my parents would have dinner parties, and you didn’t talk about it. So I registered to vote, and I would vote as a family, but it wasn’t the environment that we’re in today. 

In addition to The Daily Show, you are still touring and you’re hosting the Tennis Anyone podcast. 

That’s right. Thank you, Jeff, for for for doing your research. 

No problem. Your schedule sounds exhausting.

Did my wife ask you to ask me this question? And I have two kids and a wonderful family. It is exhausting. But let me tell you, in showbiz, for so many years, there’s nothing. You’re just sitting in L.A. like, “Hey, that audition I did four months ago. Are they ever going to call me back about that? Hey, what about that project that I pitched?” So, I I love that there’s stuff happening. I feel privileged to get to share my point of view for anybody that will listen. And if you want to talk Carlos Alcaraz and the Olympic men’s tennis final, I’ll do that. But if you want to talk politics, it’s so fun that people are tuning in and listening to me.

I think what’s cool about The Daily Show is a lot of the correspondents, not all, but a lot of the correspondents get there a little bit later in their career. It helps us have such an appreciation for the group of people you’re working with, the consistent work daily. And I’m just thankful for that. 

Do you get to play tennis now with your schedule?

I play tennis a little bit. My back is pretty screwed up from years of playing collegiately. Playing tennis in New York City is like agreeing to get in a fight with a stranger over court time. When I lived in L.A., we had a great group of men and women that had these courts around L.A. we would play on. And I loved it. It was my friend group. It was my exercise. New York City, there’s only so much space. You go to the court, you sit there for four hours. And then maybe you get to play for 35 minutes. 

What’s your writing process like for stand up? Has it changed over the years? 

I’ve had to be more efficient because. I used to wake up at 10 a.m, say, “Hey, I’m going to write today,” go get a coffee, come back. It’s 2 p.m. Friend wants to go hiking. Now it’s five and done. Now I’m at The Daily Show early, wrapping up late. “Oh, I have 20 minutes on the train. Let’s sit down and come up with some ideas.” In general, the way I write standup is, something is bothering me, let’s put pen to paper and try to deconstruct. And sometimes that can come off as, “Oh, he’s bitching again.” But also, that’s kind of what stand ups do.

Well, Michael, thank you very much for taking the time, and congratulations again, and good luck. 

Thanks for chatting. I appreciate the conversation. And we love that people pay attention to our show. So, thank you.

You can watch our full interview with Michael Kosta, which includes his thoughts on pickleball, below. 

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, and is available on Paramount+.