Even though Jon Stewart made the Daily Show the entertaining political phenomenon that it is today, I think Craig Kilborn did a great job of hosting it as well back in the mid 90s - I used to love the "5 Questions" segment he used to have with his guests.  Do you think the Daily Show would have become so popular if Kilborn had stayed on as host?

All I remember Kilborn for is being our local sports guy on channel 35 many moons ago. :D

I only know Kilborn for 'The Late Late Show' and his bit parts in movies (Old School, The Benchwarmers)

'The Daily Show' never aired here in Canada until much later when Jon Stewart became host

When did Stewart become the host? We didn't get Comedy Central here until about 2000, and I'm pretty sure Kilborn was gone by then.

Kilborn hosted from the show's start in 1997 until, IIRC, about 1999, after he got a little too big for his britches and decided to leave.  He had had many a nasty fight with the producers, and even prompted the shows' own creator, Lizz Winstead, to simply up and leave after she got tired of his crap.

Last year, when TDS celebrated thier tenth anniversary with clip montages (the "10 F%$&ing Years" segments,) any footage of Kilborn was noticeably absent.

Though I have to admit, one of my favorite boundary-pushing jokes of the series' history was from the Kilborn era - A gay cruise line was denied being able to port at the Cayman Islands due to the local government considering the passengers to be "morally reprehensible" or some such.  So they redirected their route to the Bahamas, where they were welcomed by local merchants who had rushed into production 1400 hot-pink tank tops printed with the slogan, "Cayman, My Ass!"

I used to watch it during the Kilborn years.  He was accused of some sexual harassment stuff before he left as well.  During the first year of the show, there was no audience, so you'd only hear the stage hands laughing, which was really kind of weird.  The Soup has a similar setup, but his crowd seems a little more vocal.

I seem to remember they had Liz Winstead's dad call in regularly for some reason, which was kind of funny.

I like both eras, and I was a little annoyed when they showed almost no clips of Kilborn during the ten year special, since they were basically ignoring half the run of the show.  I don't watch it as regularly as I used to, because I just don't have the time to watch (Neal sucks up most of the TV time at night with cartoons) and I'm a bit burned out on the political stuff. 

During the first year of the show, there was no audience, so you'd only hear the stage hands laughing, which was really kind of weird


That's awesome!

Before Kilborn became a late night host on 'The Late Late Show', his predecessor Tom Snyder had that format.  Whenever Tom made a joke, you'd hear the crew off camera laughing.  I loved it!

kilborn is sumg during his TDS day and his late late show era Ihated his sumgness