‘Daily Show’ Duo Samantha Bee and Jason Jones Make a Play for Their Own Hit Show

Those hoping that either or both members of “Daily Show” husband-and-wife team Jason Jones and Samantha Bee would play key roles in filling outgoing power anchor Jon Stewart’s seat can strike those two promising names off the list of potential replacements — they’re going to be otherwise occupied.

News broke this week that Jones and Bee had struck a deal (which almost certainly had been in the works since before Stewart’s exit announcement) with TBS for a comedy series inspired by their own family, as Variety reported Tuesday:

The series, described as an honest and darkly comedic look at family, follows a couple and their two kids on a road trip to Florida. Jones stars as unfiltered dad Nate, who packs his wife, Robin (Zea), along with their rebellious daughter Delilah (Gerasimovich) and simpleton son Jared (Carroll), into the family car for what he believes will be the adventure of a lifetime, which quickly turns into a disaster.

As it stands, the deal encompasses 10 episodes, with production scheduled to start this summer and the show’s premiere targeted for late 2015.

Meanwhile, what this all means for “The Daily Show” is that Jones will not be featured on the successful Comedy Central staple, as the actor himself confirmed in a tweet Tuesday, but that Bee will be staying on in some capacity. Deadline added some details about Jones and Bee’s recent guest-hosting stint, which fans might have hoped would signal the network’s intentions to make the arrangement more permanent:

Jones recently filled in for Stewart when he was sick and ended up sharing guest host duties with wife Bee, but it did not go well — though, in fairness, it was a last-minute thing. Still, when Stewart took time off to go shoot Rosewater, it was John Oliver who got the fill-in gig. And Stephen Colbert took the plum post-Daily Show time slot — and Larry Wilmore got it next. Comedy Central has said it has a short list of candidates to replace Stewart.

So, no dice for Bee and Jones in terms of the hosting job; but naturally, the remaining names on the above-mentioned short list are a source of avid speculation.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson