There have been several articles posted here and here the past two days. The jist is Jeff Zucker took Stewart out to dinner with his agent. Blah blah blah, everyone is speculating that this means Stewart who has long wanted Letterman’s spot, will come to late night on NBC.

The one thing I haven’t seen anyone mention is, why does it have to be late night? Just because he wants Letterman’s spot doesn’t mean they’re going to shell out $40million to O’Brien (who is insanely popular at that time slot).

So why not give Stewart the Evening News? Its a 1/2 hour format, that goes over todays biggest stories…sound familiar? Or ok, fine purists want a serious view of today’s political climate. Why not give him a 7:00 or 7:30PM, instead of Extra, or Access Hollwood. If anything it might make sense to give them Extra, as Access is a NBC Owned show.

Seriously, is anyone watching Extra, then says to themselves, I just didn’t get enough of Lindsay Lohans coked out rampage, I wish there was another show on right afterwards that would talk about the same thing again.

The next question is, would Stewart take the gig if it was offered to him at 7:00 or 7:30, instead of the iconic 11:35? Few remember his first foray into the genre with The Jon Stewart Show. Which took his successful MTV show, put it at the fantastic time slot of 2:00AM, suddenly lost their viewers, and was canceled …weird.

Also why would he leave Comedy Central? Other than money, what does NBC offer Stewart that he can’t get at CC? The only answer I can think of, it gives him the ability to poke fun at the people that he really has a problem with. Thats right, those people that can’t afford cable.

Am I off base?