Olivia Munn's Road to The Newsroom

Olivia Munn walks Rich through the winding path from a daily cable tech show to Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama, and the first stop was G4's Attack of the Show. Live every day with co-host Kevin Pereira, covering pop culture and tech before most of that category existed on television. Her co-host signed her up for Twitter. The show was lightning in a bottle, which was enough to get her noticed.

The bigger break came when Jon Stewart called. Her agent told her Stewart wanted to meet. She asked if he had submitted her. He had not. It was an incoming call. Stewart had watched her sketch work on G4 and wanted her in New York. Getting picked by Stewart for comedy, she says, was the hand of God.

Rich drops in his own Daily Show memory, an appearance tied to SportsCenter's 20,000th episode. Stewart was gracious, tried to calm him down, and then during the interview dropped a curse word for the first time. Rich froze, tried to chase the laugh, and by his own account blew it. It is the cautionary tale that frames how high the stakes felt for a first-timer on that set.

Munn's first Daily Show segment was as senior Asian correspondent. Stewart brought her out before the show to introduce her as a surprise to the audience. She stood in the dark wings waiting for her first piece and realized she had forgotten to breathe. The opening music hit and the whole thing became surreal.

The Daily Show put her in front of Aaron Sorkin. He watched, brought her in to audition for The Newsroom, and the arc completed itself. Attack of the Show was the first Hollywood money. The Daily Show was the first big break. The Newsroom cemented her as an actor. The irony lands cleanly. On The Daily Show she played a fake reporter. On The Newsroom she played a real one. Both jobs came from the same hand of God phone call.