On July 22, 1996, Comedy Central premiered something called The Daily Show. It was hosted by Craig Kilborn, known only as one of the wisecracking SportsCenter hosts, and was mostly a collection of pop culture jokes and absurdist features. It would have been pretty easy to write it off as another program that failed to get off the ground.

Twenty years later, The Daily Show is an American institution, though one in the midst of a transition that has called it’s very influence into question. It has made superstars out of multiple people and has at times influenced the way millions see the world around them.

How did a silly talk show on basic cable get here?

If you’ve appreciated TDS at some point, you can thank Bill Maher for that. The outspoken comic has just struck gold with his own Comedy Central chat show, Politicially Incorrect. The political gabfest caught ratings fire and was moved over to ABC, which left the comedy network with a big primetime hole to fill.

Comedian Lizz Winstead came up with the concept for TDS, a satirical take on the conventional late-night news and talk shows. The host would deliver a monologue, which was followed by a series of in-studio segments, a mock news report from the field, and a guest interview.

Now, that still sounds like the architecture of The Daily Show as we know it, but the original concept was extremely lacking in the kind of pointed political and media focus that would later make it famous. Instead, the show’s focus was often on wacky news items of the day and non sequitur comedy bits. The most memorable portion of any celebrity interview was “Five Questions,” pondering a mixture of hypotheticals and silly opinions. The show would then end with “Your Moment of Zen,” a random video clip that ranged from silly to morbid, depending on the topic covered that day. In a way, that episode-capper was meme-building before we even knew that was a thing.

Some might think that because of what was to come that TDS was a failure in its earliest form. However, the truth is that the show became a modest hit for Comedy Central. Much of the credit went to Kilborn, whose acerbic fratboy style tapped into the network’s audience base. His ability to commit to the role, but also wink back at you, lent him credibility as he built up his comedic bonafides.

Eventually, some of those same qualities that made him work as the host were a major reason he left. Reports of backstage friction between Kilborn and Winstead heated up, and it soon became known that Winstead never actually wanted Craig as the host to begin with. Things came to a head when, in an Esquire interview, Kilborn said “There are a lot of bitches on the staff, and, hey, they’re emotional people. You can print that! You know how women are — they overreact.” He then made other sexually explicit jokes at Winstead’s expense. Soon after, he was suspended from the program for one week. Unsatisfied, Winsteasd quit the show.

(At this point we should probably take note of how much the world has changed in 18 years. It’s pretty inconcievable that a male talk show host could say such things today and not lose his job.)

Kilborn would actually end up leaving TDS in 1998 t0 take over as host of CBS’s The Late Late Show. His Daily Show stint ended after 386 episodes and he actually took “Five Questions” with him, claiming it as his intellectual property.

Four weeks after Kilborn left, the program was renamed The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the comedian hosted his first episode on Jan. 11, 1999. At the time, Stewart had already been through a few rises and falls as the host of his own failed talk show on MTV and multiple other TV hosting gigs. While Stewart was thought well of, there were concerns over whether or not he’d be able to maintain the nominal success that Kilborn’s incarnation had earned.

While he retained larged portions of the staff and crew, Stewart went about remaking the show in his own image. As host, writer and executive producer, he was much more involved in the day-to-day than his predecessor and had a hand in hiring some very key talent, including former Onion editor Ben Karlin and Onion contributor David Javerbaum. With their experience writing funny new satire and mocking mainstream media, that became the new focus of TDS.

Specifically, the focus of the show also became more political. Stephen Colbert, who worked under both Kilborn and Stewart, would later say that the original show concept was “human interest-y” and it evolved into something more “issues and news driven.” Everything seemed to click when the show’s coverage of  the 2000 election campaign brought fresh commentary and derision to a sector that of American culture that hadn’t quite felt it in a long time. The show’s cutting satire struck a chord with disenfranchised audiences and spoke to their fears and anxieties about the situation in a way that still made them laugh.

It could be said that the first Daily Show episode after the September 11th attacks proved that the show was more than just mindless entertainment. Stewart’s heartfelt and emotional monologue balanced his comedic chops and his love for New York and America. Anyone who didn’t already see him, and the show, as an American culture-maker knew it now.

Stewart would continue to walk the line between making you laugh and making you think for many years. Over that time, he became less of a bystander and more of a trusted national figure, at least to some. For others, he became a gnat they could never quite smack, always buzzing somewhere close by.

By 2003, the program was averaging a million viewers per episode, something once thought unheard of for Comedy Central (though helped by the fact that more households had access to the channel). By 2008, it was up to two million viewers per episode. An October 2008 episode with guest Senator Barack Obama reached 3.8 million viewers.

Along the way, the show racked up accolade after accolade. Under Stewart, The Daily Show won won 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards. All the while, the show’s influence grew. Eventually, Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama were both guests on the program. Stewart even used the platform to help raise awareness for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which many think would not have passed if TDS hadn’t shined a light on it.

In July 2009, a Time online poll asked “Who is America’s most trusted newscaster?” Stewart won in a landslide over actual newscasters. Stewart laughed it off, but it was probably more true than anyone wanted to admit.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that under Stewart, The Daily Show also became a star-making factory the likes of which Saturday Night Live still wishes it was. Five former correspondents (Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Larry Wilmore, Trevor Noah) became hosts of their own late-night shows. Multiple correspondents became successful Hollywood and TV actors, including Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Olivia Munn, Matt Walsh. Various contributors have also made names and careers for themselves, including Lewis Black, Aasif Mandvi, Wyatt Cenac, Jessica Williams, and many others. Not to say anything of the writing talent who went on to find success elsewhere as well.

By 2013, it was starting to become clear that Stewart was getting ready for the next chapter. He took a 12-week break that summer to direct the movie Rosewater, giving John Oliver a chance to prove his hosting chops. On Feb. 10, 2015, Stewart announced that he would be leaving The Daily Show later that year. His final episode aired Aug. 6, 2015, featuring various former and current contributors.

It was soon announced that correspondent Trevor Noah would take over as the third official host of The Daily Show and his first episode aired on Sept. 28, 2015. With enormous shoes to fill, Noah zigged the direction of the show slightly. He knew enough to know he wasn’t Jon Stewart, so while the show continued to mock the world of politics and media, he also tweaked the look and feel of the program to fit his persona, which was a bit more boyish and playful.

Noah’s tenure has been met with a mixture of disappointment and concern. Longtime fans of the program have found it hard to connect with the new host’s style, and his inability to live up to Stewary’s looming presence in American pop culture has cast doubts on the future of The Daily Show as a cultural touchstone. It doesn’t help Noah’s case that the late-night landscape is as good as it’s ever been. Former Daily Show talent like John Oliver and Samantha Bee may have usurped the show’s value in the culture, or are at the very least siphoning away viewers.

Still, The Daily Show isn’t dead yet. It’s still capable of creating watchable moments in an age when most late night segments are geared toward going viral as much as they entertaining TV audiences. Noah’s version is still pulling in 800K viewers/night, which is a drop-off from Stewart’s heyday, but still a solid amount for cable given the competition. If Noah and his staff can continue to figure out their niche in the crowded landscape, TDS has a future even if it’s not the one we all envisioned.

The hope, of course, is that The Daily Show can continue on for a long time to come. Not just because of what Jon Stewart built, but also because of the opportunities that the show has created for its cast as well as the audience. The setup is tried and true and as long as the writers keep it fresh and the correspondants keep it funny, there should be room for this iconic program to continue. What it becomes from here, well, we’ll have to check back in another twenty years to find out.

Now, here it is, your Moment of Zen.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.