‘Daily Show’ book looks at democracy

As Jon Stewart tells it, he and his staff of 13 writers at “The Daily Show” were looking for a project.

“Life was too balanced,” he says with a straight face. “It was too good for us.”

They considered a “roads project, a civic improvement,” but when they looked around their offices in Manhattan, “we mostly had computers.”

So they wrote a book. “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction” (Warner, $24.95) will be published today after nine months of checking a few facts and making up a lot more.

Just as his TV show on Comedy Central is a parody of a news show, the book is a graphic-heavy parody of a textbook. Chapters include “Congress: Quagmire of Freedom,” “The Media: Democracy’s Valiant Vulgarians” and “The Rest of the World: International House of Horrors.”

The foreword is by Thomas “TJ” Jefferson, who inquires in a postscript: “Is it true Halle Berry is once again single?”

Stewart’s favorite part?

“I like the ending,” he says, which offers a Certificate of Completion, qualifying readers to “practice, participate in, or found a democracy.”

Too often, he says, “you finish a book and ask, ‘What’s in it for me beyond self-improvement?’ Our book gives you a certificate in nation-building. If you just smash together the basic ideas, you’re bound to wind up with something better than North Korea.”

The late, late Drew Carey

Tonight’s guest host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show” has blond hair, but the similarities between him and Craig Kilborn pretty much end there.

Drew Carey will get the first shot at filling the host’s chair vacated by Kilborn last month, taking the reins for tonight’s season premiere and again on Tuesday.

Carey, a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Late” executive producer David Letterman’s “Late Show,” has never been behind the host’s desk for a talk show. He does, however, have some hosting experience from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and the upcoming WB series “Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show.”

Comedian D.L. Hughley, Michael Ian Black (“Ed”), Amy Sedaris (“Strangers with Candy”) and radio/ESPN host Jim Rome also are in the guest host mix. At press time, CBS hadn’t yet nailed down who’s hosting for the rest of this week.

ABC calls delay of game

ABC’s “Monday Night Football” telecasts this season are coming to your television set just slightly less than live.

The network has instituted a five-second delay in hopes of avoiding an incident similar to the one involving Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. The delay process, which can allow editors to bleep out obscenities or cut away from potentially offensive images, was in place for the network’s first two NFL regular-season broadcasts on Sept. 9 and 13.

An ABC Sports spokesman said the policy for “Monday Night Football” is in line with what the network often does for live entertainment programming. The Oscars aired on a slight delay earlier this year.

ABC says that for now, “Monday Night Football” will be the only live sports coverage to employ the five-second delay.