Jon Stewart is leaving his position as host of 'The Daily Show' because he wasn't getting the ''satisfaction'' from it anymore.

The 52-year-old television host has admitted he felt his time in the ''the most perfect job in the world'' had naturally come to an end and so put his notice in after 16 years at the helm.

He said: ''It's not like I thought the show wasn't working any more, or that I didn't know how to do it. It was more, 'Yup, it's working. But I'm not getting the same satisfaction.'

''These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it's OK. But the cycles become longer and maybe more entrenched, and that's when you realise, 'OK, I'm on the back side of it now.'''

Jon also admitted he had been toying with the idea of leaving for some time but didn't want to make the final decision straight away.

He added to The Guardian newspaper's Weekend magazine: ''Some of it had been in the back of my head for quite some time. But you don't want to make any kind of decision when you're in the crucible of the process, just like you don't decide whether you're going to continue to run marathons in mile 24.

''You wait until you're done, you have a nice cup o' water, you put the blanket on, you sit and then you decide.''