The July 16, 2013 episode of the Daily Show focuses on filibusters, the royal baby, and Dame Helen Mirren.
The episode begins with John Oliver explaining what happened with the power the previous episode. Oliver says that he thought that it would be a wide ranged outage, since it has been really hot in New York City and everyone’s AC is on. He then shows security footage of Stephen Colbert cutting the power to the studio, because he is upset that Oliver is taking Jon Stewart’s place.
Oliver moves on to discuss Texas Senator Wendy Davis’ filibuster from a few weeks ago. She stood for hours discussing abortion in order to prevent a bill severely limiting the availability of abortion. It all ended up being for nothing, since the bill passed a few days ago. However, it did bring people’s attention to filibusters. In President Barack Obama’s first term, there were 16 filibusters preventing his nominations to executive positions, such as those in his cabinet. Projections say that there will be 28 in this term. That is over half of the filibusters for this type of nomination in U.S. history. This back-up has led to Democratic Congress-people going for the “Nuclear Option”, which is basically only needing a simple majority for these non-lifetime appointments. Of course, the minority group is opposed to it. So, instead of taking this minimal step towards making things run better, they hammered out a deal regarding Obama’s nominations. Jason Jones then reports from the Senate floor, explaining how filibusters (which, in the U.S. Congress, do not require a person to stand and talk for hours without sitting down or bathroom breaks) make accomplishing things almost impossible.
The second segment is kind of a throw away piece. For those unaware, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant and should be giving birth at any time. Oliver, according to this episode, is very excited, and impatient. He also shows the reactions of the reporters in London, which are extremely impatient.
The guest for this episode is Dame Helen Mirren promoting her new film, Red 2. Oliver, and Mirren discuss her dame-hood, and meeting the Queen of England. They also discuss how exciting it is to meet movie stars. Mirren says she always tried to touch them, since the fabric of their clothes is always so nice.