Stewart Expected to Host Late-Night Show on CBS

CBS is expected to name former MTV talk-show host Jon Stewart to front a late-night challenger to NBC’s “Later” series--which reportedly had been courting the comedian to take over for host Greg Kinnear.

Stewart’s show will air opposite “Later” weekdays at 1:35 a.m. and will be produced by David Letterman’s World Wide Pants production company, which already produces both Letterman’s 11:35 p.m. show and “Late Late Show with Tom Snyder” at 12:35 a.m. for CBS. It will begin airing in late 1997.

Sources said that Stewart, 33, has been told that he will get Snyder’s earlier time-slot when Snyder retires. Snyder, 60, has renewed his contract for another year, the sources said, and CBS is planning to announce the renewal along with the signing of Stewart this week. CBS declined comment.

According to sources, Stewart was close to signing with NBC to take over “Later” for Kinnear, who has a blossoming film career, until Letterman called to urge him to do a show at CBS. Stewart recently filled in as a guest host on “Later,” which follows “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” NBC executives could not be reached for comment.

Stewart is a stand-up comedian who gained national attention when MTV gave him a talk show. The program was then reworked by Paramount as the replacement for Arsenio Hall’s syndicated series. It premiered in the fall of 1994 but it failed to make a dent in the ratings, and the studio pulled the plug on it 10 months after it began.

Snyder’s CBS show began in 1995. A longtime NBC host, Snyder was hosting a late-night show on the CNBC cable network when Letterman asked him to do a show for CBS.