Gawker will cease to exist next week, the news and gossip site announced Thursday, the same day Larry Wilmore's Nightly Show taped its final episode. Gawker Media was bankrupted by an unusually large court judgment bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel, while The Nightly Show apparently died due to lackluster ratings, but Jon Stewart tied the two together in his appearance on the show's finale. "The last show — oh my god, what did you do, piss off Peter Thiel?" Stewart asked Wilmore. "Does revenge know no bounds?" Mostly, though, Stewart was there for a pep talk.
"I have been in situations, in what we call show business, television, where my name has been on the show and they have locked the door and told me, 'Get your shit and get out,'" Stewart said, then passed on some advice he got from David Letterman. "A very wise man said to me, 'Do not confuse cancellation with failure.' And I took that to heart." Then he used the noun "task" as a verb: "What you, my friend, were tasked to do, you did, and you did it beautifully. You brought voice to an underserved voice in the media arena. And you did it — it was a show that was raw and funny and poignant and smart, and all those things.... You took something and got better every f---ing day."
"That conversation doesn't end," Stewart said. "That's a beautiful thing." And then he finished with a nod to Wilmore's closing remark to President Obama at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. You can watch the final Nightly Show below — Stewart comes on at the 5:30 mark. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for October 27Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include improving national monuments, the NBA gambling scandal, and the AI energy vampire
-
Donald Trump’s week in Asia: can he shift power away from China?Today's Big Question US president’s whirlwind week of diplomacy aims to bolster economic ties and de-escalate trade war with China
-
The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years onIn The Spotlight The nation is ‘still no paradise’ for women, say campaigners
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
