The new Daily Show set

Last night I tuned in to the Daily Show on Comedy Central for the first time in...I don't know, a couple of weeks...and immediately noticed how different everything looked. Surely Stewart was broadcasting from LA or Hollywood I thought, for the lighting was cold, the set was bare, and the air had the vibe of David Letterman broadcasting from LA, or Leno in New York. In other words, downright uncomfortable and awkward.

After a couple of minutes my wife asked what the deal with the set was, and I replied he must be broadcasting from somewhere outside of New York, for there was no way this could be a new, permanent set. Well, I was wrong.

The classic pinkish couch is gone, and so is Stewart's desk. There's now a single, open, curved table with two office chairs. The arrangement is reminiscent of Bill Maher's set on HBO, but about half the size and much more intimate. Guests no longer sit forward with their heads tilted left (like they have for decades on plenty of talk shows) but now sit directly in front of Stewart with their right-side towards the front camera.

The lighting is no longer a non-directional, ambient glow, but tightly positioned and focused on the subjects; like a late-night interrogation.

Which brings me to a larger point -- the set clearly wasn't designed for celebrities, but for focused, serious discussion with guests from the sociopolitical landscape, which is 90 plus percent of the guests on the show these days anyhow. But while the former set had a flexible, comfortable, quasi-serious tone to it, the new one is hard as nails and intended for what could be a very different show going forward.