CBS’s parent company has pulled back on plans to use one of its most popular shows to motivate Americans to consider running for local office.
The move, first reported by Semafor, was made by officials at Paramount out of fear of more retaliation from Donald Trump.
Trump and his Federal Communications Commission are probing coverage of another Paramount property, CBS News over its flagship current affairs show 60 Minutes.
The now-delayed Daily Show initiative, called ‘Take A Seat,’ was meant to launch this week.
Sources familiar with the situation said the initiative will now launch later this month – with a new nonpartisan partner – and that the entertainment company will no longer be working alongside firms with explicit political affiliations.
As of writing, Jon Stewart has made no mention of the partnership, which was designed to put prospective candidates on track to finding what office they are best-suited for – before helping them launch their respective campaigns.
Orgs originally tapped by Paramount to oversee this process were the veterans group New Politics Leadership Academy, the progressive group Run For Something, and the right-leaning Women’s Public Leadership Network.
All those partnerships have now been abandoned, because brass reportedly decided they simply carry too much risk – at a time where Trump’s 60 Minutes lawsuit has already thrust a looming merger with Skydance into uncertainty.
CBS’s parent company – Shari Redstone-led Paramount – has reversed plans to use one of its most popular shows to motivate Americans to mull a run for local office
The move was made by officials at Paramount, fearing retaliation from Donald Trump. The now-delayed Daily Show initiative, called ‘Take A Seat,’ was meant to launch this week
‘Be the leader you’ve been complaining for!’ copy promoting the effort online still reads.
‘The Daily Show’s InDecision: Take A Seat is our effort to shine a light on local and state offices that you might not even know are out there, and encourage YOU to throw your hat in the ring,’ it continues, after quietly going up on the Comedy Central section of the Paramount Global website unannounced.
The page was deleted sometime during the writing of this article, around 11am ET.
‘If you’re tired of complaining about who’s running things and want other people to complain about how YOU’RE running things, then now is your moment!’
It concludes: ‘You may be the exact leader your community needs, but you won’t know until you try.’
At the bottom of the page, the three pulled partnerships remain listed – despite now being set to be replaced by a nonpartisan nonprofit that will help political outsiders locate open positions.
Input from Paramount’s government affairs division helped fuel the decision, those familiar said – though a Paramount official who spoke to Semafor insisted otherwise.
They said the government team was not involved in the talks to terminate the partnerships, but confirmed Paramount will no longer be teaming up with such organizations due to the political connotations they bring.
Comedy Central – the home of the left-leaning, satirical Daily Show – has yet to promote the initiative.
A page promoting the effort was deleted from Paramount’s website around 11am ET Monday. Semafor reported on the decision – which sources said was made out of fear of more retaliation from the president – just hours earlier
Presenters such as Stewart, Michael Kosta, and Desi Lydic have continued to criticize the president in the meantime, leaving their higher-ups at the struggling entertainment behemoth above them to worry about risk.
Spurring such worries is none other than CBS, whose most successful news program, 60 Minutes, is at the center of a high-stakes legal battle with the president.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported Paramount, in its capacity as CBS’s parent, is entering into talks with Trump to resolve claims that ’60 Minutes’ deceptively edited an interview with his 2020 presidential opponent, Kamala Harris.
Shari Redstone, daughter of the late media magnate Sumner Redstone and the person effectively in control of Paramount, has said she wants to resolve the dispute, while keeping tabs on 60 Minutes’ style of coverage as well.
An abrupt resignation of a top producer, Bill Owens, and a jarring on-air diatribe against Paramount offered on-air last week by Scott Pelley, has framed the parent company’s continued stance as an unforgivable sin – at least from the perspective of CBS’s newsroom.
Pelley, in his rant, claimed ‘Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways’ ahead of the merger, which has sat in limbo as the FCC continues to probe whether the Harris interview violated federal ‘news distortion’ rules.
Simultaneously, the agency has continued to remind Paramount that it may not approve the merger if it finds CBS staffers engaged in bias by ‘deceptively’ editing the 60 Minutes interview, to the point it could constitute ‘distortion.’
Redstone, daughter of the late media magnate Sumner Redstone and the person effectively in control of Paramount, has said she wants to resolve a suit filed by the president over 60 Minutes’ October interview with Kamala Harris
An abrupt resignation of a top producer, Bill Owens, and a jarring on-air diatribe against Paramount offered on-air last week by Scott Pelley, has framed the parent company’s continued stance as an unforgivable sin – at least from the perspective those in CBS’s newsroom
Trump is suing CBS News over its 60 Minutes interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris , prior to the 2024 election. Pelley claimed ‘Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways’ ahead of the merger, which has sat in limbo as the FCC continues to probe its practices
In resigning, Owens said he had ‘lost the independence that honest journalism requires.’
Paramount has yet to block any CBS stories or reports.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Paramount for comment.
