Comedian Jon Stewart will headline Colonials Weekend with two live performances, University administrators confirmed last week.

Stewart, host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, will perform two shows on Oct. 17, beginning at 7 and 10 p.m. This will be Stewart’s second time headlining Colonials Weekend in five years.

Tickets for the performances will go on sale July 6 and will cost between $50 and $90, said Peter Konwerski, associate vice president for Student and Academic Support Services.

“In terms of this year’s act, Jon Stewart was the first choice, so we really feel lucky all of this came together for us this year and we have confidence that it will be a terrific pair of shows,” Konwerski said.

Konwerski said Stewart was asked to perform after surveys from students and parents conducted during last year’s Colonials Weekend and others done by a graduate School of Business class showed the witty comedian was the GW community’s first choice.

Last year, ticket prices for comedian Robin Williams’ performances at Colonials Weekend were between $57 and $150.

“We worked with [Stewart’s] staff and they actually had a goal to keep tickets under $100 because they wanted to keep it as affordable as possible,” Konwerski said. “We went back and forth on a number of different ticket scenarios to make it as affordable as possible.”

In addition to performing two sold-out shows at Colonials Weekend in 2005, Stewart has also appeared on campus to film an episode of CNN’s Crossfire and performed a comedy act in February of 2000 as well. Konwerski said Stewart is excited to return to campus this fall.

“For us, it’s a company we’ve worked with a couple of times before and they were really pleased to see we were interested in having him come back, especially because he’s from the northeast and he definitely knows the type of students that come to GW,” Konwerski said.

When Stewart performed on campus back in 2005 for Colonials Weekend, Konwerski said tickets “sold out pretty quickly,” adding that students should act fast to purchase tickets.