It's painful to see how sharp he was back then and then see his current show. Something happened.

AS Jon Stewart points out, a debate show could be great. But that format is not a debate show.

Turns out people don't actually want a debate show. Hard to imagine how any for profit company that tries this ends up with anything different.

Has anyone ever tried a debate show, you know before claiming it couldn't work.

Many news programs do a great job at having a civilized debate between the conservative and progressive views on current issues. I'm partial to the PBS newshour. Unfortunately, their ratings are in the gutter, even without ads.

Certainly, PBS and CSPAN host such shows but they don't tend to pull in a ton of viewership.