Stewart jokes about Sanchez firing; ex-CNN host apologizes

Could Rick Sanchez replace Steve Carell on "The Office"?

Jon Stewart toyed with the idea Monday night in his first "Daily Show" segment since CNN fired Sanchez for calling Stewart a "bigot" and suggesting that Jews run the media. Stewart played clips side-by-side of Sanchez and Carell's jocular, tone-deaf character, Michael Scott.

Stewart began the "Hurty Sanchez" segment by joking that he was listening Thursday to "one of my favorite shows, the Pete Dominick radio hour, and heard Sanchez riff for nearly 20 minutes about Stewart's "bigotry" against Hispanics, how network executives are "a lot like Stewart," and claimed that Jews don't face discrimination.

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"Now I'm angry, because I realize I don't get back on the air until Monday and there's no way this cat survives the weekend at CNN," Stewart said. "It's one of those days where I'm thinking, 'Why don't we tape on Fridays?'"

Stewart said that he wasn't "making fun of Rick Sanchez because of some slight against his ethnicity" but because his show's staff sees him as a "complex television character who's flawed, but fascinating to watch." Stewart said that although his staff already had the Sanchez/"Office" bit in the works, it seems "kind of mean" to do it now. Still, he couldn't resist. (Stewart wasn't the only comedian who mocked Sanchez on Monday night. David Letterman's nightly "Top 10" was called "Sanchez Excuses.")

However, Stewart cut Sanchez a little slack toward the end of the segment, and even played a CNN clip where Sanchez once called out a neo-Nazi for bashing the "Jew media." He said the ex-CNN host probably has "a good heart."

[Video: Stewart visits Bill O'Reilly ]

Perhaps Stewart reached that conclusion after speaking with Sanchez by phone Monday.

Suzanne Sanchez, the journalist's wife, revealed a few details of the conversation on Facebook. She wrote: "rick apologized to jon stewart today. they had a good talk. jon was gracious and called rick, 'thin-skinned.' he's right." She also said her husband's outburst was probably caused by "exhaustion" from working 14-hour days for the past two months. That, she said, "caused him to mangle his thought process inartfully."

Sanchez himself hasn't spoken out publicly.

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