Comedy Central's Indecision 2000 was a series of special episodes featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart spoofing the 2000 Presidential Election. This series covered the primaries leading up to the general election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The series featured "correspondents" at the Democratic National Convention as well as the Republican National Convention. At the conventions, the correspondents interviewed many politicians in the comedic style that has made The Daily Show famous. On the first episode after election night, Jon Stewart said that the name was a joke and he had not expected people to take it seriously, referring to the debacle in Florida.
This edition of Indecision also included a separate series called Lewis Black's World of Politics, aired during the Republican and Democratic national conventions and featuring Lewis Black. It was included on Black's DVD releases Lewis Black - Unleashed in 2003.
In 2000, Indecision 2000 won a Peabody Award. [1]
The "Indecision" title became a standard for mock election coverage of various kinds afterwards in regular versions of The Daily Show.
The 2008 Election has also been referred to on The Daily Show as "Clusterf@#k to the White House", due to the numerous presidential candidates at the beginning of the race.
The April 12, 2000 segment on five-time write-in candidate Charles R. Doty from Oklahoma was rebroadcast twice; the first on September 20, 2001, the first episode that taped after the September 11 attacks. After giving an emotional monologue, Stewart said that he hoped to make his audience smile by airing the clip about Doty, who he said "epitomized this sort of frontier American spirit of a man who believed in all things being possible." [2] The clip rebroadcast again in June 2003 after Doty's death. [3]
On September 11, 2007, Stephen Colbert announced he was beginning a new segment for the upcoming 14 months to the 2008 election, titling it "Indecision 2008: Don't F%#K this up America".
Indecision 2000 was the first of the "Indecision" specials on The Daily Show although not the first for Comedy Central. (The "Indecision" brand was introduced during the 1992 Presidential Campaign, beginning with coverage of the 1992 Democratic National Convention hosted by Al Franken. [4] ) The next was The Daily Show: Indecision 2004 covering the 2004 Presidential Election.
The Daily Show is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+. The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, and media organizations. It often uses self-referential humor.
Jon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor and television host. The long-running host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2015, Stewart returned to the satirical news program in 2024. He hosted The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ from 2021 to 2023. Stewart has received numerous accolades, including 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and five Peabody Awards. He was honored with the Bronze Medallion in 2019, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2022.
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, and cultural trends.
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since September 2015.
Samantha Anne Bee is a Canadian-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host.
The Colbert Report is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focused on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits. Furthermore, the show satirized conservative personality-driven political talk programs, particularly Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor. The Colbert Report is a spin-off of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, where Colbert was a correspondent from 1997 to 2005.
The Daily Show: Indecision 2004 is a DVD boxed set of several episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart relating to the 2004 presidential election. The episodes were all filmed during 2004, and feature interviews with political candidates and parodies of the events during the general election campaign.
Elister Larry Wilmore III is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He served as the "Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2014, and hosted The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in 2015 and 2016. He is also the creator of the sitcom The Bernie Mac Show. He served as an executive producer for the ABC television series Black-ish, and is the co-creator, with Issa Rae, of the HBO television series Insecure. Since May 2017, he has hosted a podcast, Black on the Air, where he discusses current events and interviews guests. He was the host of the talk show Wilmore.
Kevin Bleyer is an American television writer and producer. He has won multiple Emmy, Peabody, and Writers Guild Awards He was a former writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a contributor to President Barack Obama's speeches, the author of the best-selling Me the People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution, a co-author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller Earth: The Book, and the co-author, with Governor Bill Richardson, of How to Sweet-Talk a Shark. In 2008, he became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2014, he served as a Fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
The Reverend Sir Dr. Stephen T. Mos Def Colbert D.F.A., Heavyweight Champion of the World, is the fictionalized persona of political satirist Stephen Colbert, as portrayed on the Comedy Central series The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and occasionally on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Described as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot" and a "self-important right-wing commentator", the character incorporates aspects of the real Colbert's life and interests but is primarily a parody of cable news pundits, particularly former Fox News prime time host Bill O'Reilly.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's Indecision 2006 was Stewart's coverage of the 2006 general elections. It extended for most of the campaign period for that election, but grew especially intensive toward the actual date of the election on November 7.
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 was the special coverage of the United States presidential election provided by several programs on the Comedy Central network.
On October 16, 2007, satirist Stephen Colbert officially announced that he would run for President of the United States. This came after weeks of being pressured to do so by the public and stating that he would need a sign, which came from Aragorn giving him the sword Anduril. Although the legitimacy of his campaign was questioned, he maintained that he was serious. Colbert had originally planned to run for both the Republican and the Democratic nomination in his home state of South Carolina. After learning that the fee to file for the Republican primary was $35,000, he abandoned plans to run as a Republican. Although he paid the $2,500 fee to be included in the South Carolina Democratic ballot, he was denied a place on the ballot by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council. On November 5, 2007, Colbert officially dropped his presidential bid.
Who Made Huckabee?, also known as the Colbert/O'Brien/Stewart feud, refers to a mock rivalry that occurred among late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart in early 2008, reportedly over who was responsible for then–presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's success in the presidential primaries.
Wyatt John Foster Cenac Jr. is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He was a correspondent and writer for The Daily Show from 2008 to 2012. He starred in the TBS series People of Earth and in Barry Jenkins's first feature Medicine for Melancholy. He also hosted and produced the HBO series Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas.
Rory Scot Albanese is an American comedian, comedy writer and television producer. He was a showrunner, executive producer and writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which he joined in 1999 and was with until October 2013. He was an executive producer and showrunner of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
InDecision 92 was a series of special programs aired on Comedy Central during 1992, providing comedic coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. The programs were hosted by Al Franken.
Charles Richard Doty was an American who is best remembered for his futile attempts at running for president of the United States as a write-in candidate. Doty ran for president five times, gaining national fame on the fifth and final occasion in 2000, when his campaign was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.