On the day that Jon Stewart took his final bow on the Daily Show on August 6, high school teacher Mariel Waters wrote a petition to bring him back to television.
In a Change.org petition, Waters argued that Stewart has the experience of interviewing national and world leaders. Stewart and the Daily Show team won the Peabody Award — the equivalent of the Pulitzer for broadcast media — for coverage of the 2000 and 2004 political campaigns.
“Over the last 16 years, Jon Stewart has played an influential and iconic role in covering US politics and media. We believe he should continue that tradition as a moderator at one of the 2016 Presidential Debates,” the petition read.
The petition requests a public response from the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is a nonpartisan organization that sponsors the presidential debates.
“I feel like he has a track record of being successful at getting people off talking points, challenging them, and getting them to a more genuine place,” Waters told NJ.com. “I think he’d do a great job at getting two candidates to get deeper into conversations.”
The social studies teacher said, “I think it’ll get more people tuning into the debate and would have a real appeal among younger people – a segment of the population that he’s done a great job engaging with.”
The moderator position can generate controversy. Jim Lehrer was criticized by some for not keeping a tight hold on a debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in 2012.
Jon Stewart has not made any public response about the petition. On Sunday, Stewart hosted WWE Summerslam, which is far from the presidential campaign trail.
