NBC News courted Jon Stewart to host ‘Meet the Press’

NBC initially wooed Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart to replace David Gregory as the new host of “Meet The Press,” according to a new report. 

New York Magazine reports that NBC News’s president spoke to Stewart about the position and was willing to “back the Brink’s truck up,” according to a source.

{mosads}Stewart ultimately chose to stay on at Comedy Central, where he’s hosted “The Daily Show” since 1999. Despite the show’s comedic take on the news, Stewart’s show was ranked a more trusted news source than MSNBC in a Brookings survey from 2014.

The network eventually settled on promoting Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, to the host spot.

Todd’s revamped show initially surged in the ratings during his first week on the air, helped in part by an interview with President Obama. It’s since fallen back to third in the Sunday show ratings, behind ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Stewart hasn’t been afraid to mix it up with political guests on his show or in other television appearances. He took CNBC’s Jim Cramer to task for urging investors to keep their money in the market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis and received praise for his 2012 interview with Obama. 

Some credit his criticism of CNN’s original “Crossfire” as one of the reasons the show was canceled. During an appearance on the political debate show, Stewart accused the hosts of dividing the country.

Todd tweeted about the news on Wednesday afternoon, mixing his show’s famous tagline with the title of a segment from Stewart’s show.