Sixteen years of missing family dinners.

That's got to be rough on him - He's got a 9 and 11 year old at home. To be a father cases about his kids and that's never home for dinner, or just the evening in general, must be hard. Think of all of the events that he probably missed in those years due to work: Dance recitals, school awards, "graduations", etc. He probably spends a lot of time wondering if his kids think that he's neglecting them, because he's never home. To do it for a little while isn't that bad, but doing to the point of looking at his kids every now and then and going "Wow, did he/she change a lot. When did that happen? Where was I?" (well, more than a normal parent), must get to him.

At the same time, Stewart's been at it for years. Imagine doing the same exact thing 5 days a week for 16 years. I'm not talking about having the same job - this man has to do literally the exact same thing every show. There's no chance to change titles. There's no moving around within the company or handling responsibilities, it's the same exact thing every single day. That doesn't mean he hates his job, but does having your favorite food every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 16 years ever get tiring? He said himself that he's covered 4 elections already, and this one doesn't look any different. Take that a step further and his daily content really doesn't change either: FOX is stupid, CNN is overreacting, FOX just said something outrageous. Doing a job like Stewart has every day has to wear a person down.