Jonny On The Spot

Well, he's certainly the net's biggest star to date (that is, if you don't count the talking poop on South Park). And to snag him, they offered a godlike deal: time off to moonlight in the movies (he's in the sci-fi thriller The Faculty and the upcoming Sean Connery-starring drama Playing by Heart); his name in the title (it's now called The Daily Show With Jon Stewart); and an astronomical-for-cable salary — about $1.5 million a year. ''The overall budget of Comedy Central has now been drastically reduced,'' says Daily Show cocreator and exec producer Madeleine Smithberg. ''Chef from South Park will have to go on a diet.''

If you must take food out of the mouths of cartoon culinary types, The Daily Show's at least a worthwhile cause. The series (''the most important show ever,'' the promos trumpet with the show's typically snide irony) mixes celeb interviews, quips about the headlines, and on-the-street segments mocking John Q. Oddball (victims include Christian clowns and a woman who searches for leprechauns). With ratings shooting up 90 percent since Daily's 1996 debut, that's what you call a recipe for success. Don't, therefore, expect the ingredients to change much beyond a few tweaks. Though you might not be seeing Kilborn's signature bit, the goofy, celeb-rattling Five Questions (Kilborn — who cracks that he's leaving Stewart ''a phone book to sit on'' — hopes to whisk them off to CBS), Stewart's got his own gimmick, the Four Questions From Passover Seder (''Why is this guest different from all other guests?'').

He kids, but one thing's for sure: This host is different from the previous host. Kilborn — like fellow Central grad Bill Maher before him — plays up the smug-guy's guy shtick, a persona that earned him a PR debacle last year when Esquire quoted him making lewd comments about Daily Show cocreator Lizz Winstead. Contrast that with Stewart's sweet, ironic mensch vibe. ''Jon's the kid Craig probably beat up every day in fifth grade,'' says head writer Chris Kreski.

So while we may see fewer of The Daily Show's cruelest jabs (like the whopper about Alzheimer's-stricken Reagan ''talking to a mailbox''), the sharp-witted Stewart undoubtedly will fill in any holes; unlike Kilborn, he writes a lot of his own material. ''I think the first two to three months are gonna probably be a little shaky, until we get our stride,'' admits Stewart. Indeed, Stewart's debut comes shortly after the departure of two of the show's popular correspondents — Brian Unger and A. Whitney Brown. But those behind the scenes are unconcerned: ''I think if you take The Daily Show and add Jon Stewart, whatever comes out of the microwave at the end of a minute will be tasty,'' says Smithberg. ''I'm just not sure whether it's a taco or a pizza.''