How to Stand Apart From ‘Daily Show’ Guest-Host Pack? Kal Penn Brought POTUS

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Showing off your late-night hosting skills when you have just four days to do so can be daunting.

So Kal Penn brought his ‘A’ game. The actor used his unique connections to the White House — he was an associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs during the Obama administration — to deliver a hard-to-get booking to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” When Penn recently guest-hosted the program, his first night featured a sit-down with President Joe Biden.

How did he land POTUS? Penn simply asked — but made clear he planned to ask questions the Commander-in-Chief doesn’t usually get during a media scrum. “I definitely wanted him to join me in setting up what I hope was a hopeful arc over the week,” says Penn, who asked Biden to discuss how young people’s advocacy can spur change on climate, drilling, and human rights.

Biden also offered about his views on same-sex marriage and the treatment of transgender children, among other topics. “The satire space can be the kind of thing that sometimes can leave people feeling a little despondent,” Penn says in an interview. “I’m not saying ‘The Daily Show’ has done this.