Jon Stewart

WASHINGTON - Cable television heavyweights Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly faced off Saturday night in “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium,” with the ideological opponents, by turns blunt and vulgar, debating everything from the economy to entitlements. The event, hosted by George Washington University in Washington, D.C., presented a chance for the two politically charged talk show hosts to try to persuade each other to move to the opposite side of the spectrum. Not surprisingly, that part was a bust.

President Obama took a beating on late-night television Thursday, a day after delivering a sluggish debate performance against his rival, Mitt Romney. On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart joked that Obama's debate loss represented a rare moment of bipartisan accord: Pundits on both the left and the right agreed that he choked. “There is no red America, there is no blue America, there is only the America that can't believe how bad this guy did in the debate,” he said, paraphrasing Obama's career-making speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by “The Daily Show” on Monday night to plug his new book, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,” Jon Stewart began by immediately addressing the “elephant in the room.” “What were you thinking with 'Jingle All the Way'?” he asked, facetiously. Of course, without actually having to utter the words “affair” or “love child,” Stewart was actually asking Schwarzenegger about his relationship with housekeeper Mildred Baena, which came to light last year shortly after his term as governor ended.

In solidarity with their brothers working for the NFL, on Wednesday the “Daily Show” correspondents decided to go on strike. The action caught Jon Stewart by surprise. After a segment about the replacement referees' disastrous call that finally got Americans up in arms about a labor dispute, the host threw to correspondent John Oliver -- or so he thought. PHOTOS: Was it a touchdown or interception? In his place was a man who wore glasses and spoke with a British accent, like Oliver, but who was noticably more grandiloquent.

Viewers tuning in to the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards could be forgiven for thinking they were watching an updated version of "Groundhog Day. " The show was flavored with a taste of déjà vu. Despite a few surprise wins - notably freshman series "Homeland" ruining the win streak of "Mad Men" as outstanding drama series - the ceremony was dominated by victors who had previously made trips to the Emmys winners' circle. In upholding what has become an unofficial Emmy tradition, the results in the dramatic, comedy and reality categories demonstrated that Academy of Television Arts & Sciences voters continue to lean toward the familiar when it comes to handing out honors.

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly are taking their status as BFFs - best frenemies forever - to the next level early next month when they square off in a 90-minute, pay per-view event in the nation's capital. Dubbed "The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," the face-to-face meeting Oct. 6 will be moderated by CNN anchor E.D. Hill and will be modeled after a mock presidential debate: 60 minutes of conversation between the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and Fox's top-rated "The O'Reilly Factor," then 30 minutes of audience questions.

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly will go head-to-head in a debate to be held in Washington next month, the pair announced Monday. In what will no doubt be the greatest exchange of ideas since the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, the hosts will face off Oct. 6 in a 90-minute event, dubbed the “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium.” The conversation will be moderated by television journalist E.D. Hill, and Stewart and O'Reilly will also...

“The Daily Show” was in reruns last week as violent protests erupted across the Muslim world, but back on the air Monday night, Jon Stewart addressed the turmoil in the Middle East - and particularly what he sees as the hypocritical conservative response to it. It's always awkward for such a topical show to respond to big news several days after it's broken, but on the bright side, the downtime gave “The Daily Show's” research team...

Given the state of contemporary political discourse, "The Daily Show" rarely has to look very hard to find someone (or something) worthy of ridicule. Occasionally, though, a moment comes along that's impervious to Jon Stewart's satirical gaze, like Bill Clinton's deeply wonky yet riveting speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night. On Thursday's "Daily Show," Stewart began with a few obligatory jokes about the length of Clinton's remarks. A Giants fan, he grumbled that "this was not the event from last night I wanted to go into overtime," but from there it was all praise for Bubba.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are primarily known as political satirists, but on Thursday night they were both in fact-checker mode, marking up Paul Ryan's keynote speech with their metaphorical red pens. On “The Daily Show,” Stewart was struck by the contrast between  Ryan's reputation as a policy-focused, “speaker of hard truths” and his speech, which, though well-delivered, was short on specfics and long on the whoppers. Stewart took Ryan -- a.k.a. “Chiseled Chin McNicey Face” -- to task for making misleading claims about Medicare funding and the failure of a proposed bipartisan debt commission.