Jon Stewart Returning to TV With Apple TV+ Show on Current Events

Former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart is set to make a big return to television thanks to a multi-year deal struck with Apple. Stewart will inaugurate his new Apple deal by delivering a new show dedicated to current affairs to viewers. For nearly 20 years, Stewart was a go-to political pundit via The Daily Show, which went from just jokes about the state of American politics to a must-see broadcast which turned our increasingly dire political landscape into riveting, legitimate TV. Stewart left The Daily Show in 2015 and has been, by and large, engaged in his advocacy work. He did also gift us the political satire Irresistible starring Steve Carell and Rose Byrne earlier in 2020, which he wrote and directed.

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Stewart's multi-year deal kicks off with a new current affairs show consisting of one-hour episodes focused on a single issue per episode, according to a press release from Apple. The show "will explore topics that are currently part of the national conversation and his advocacy work," and, with multiple seasons of the show already greenlit, "each season of the series will be further explored in a companion podcast to continue the discussion." In addition to this still-untitled current affairs show, Apple TV+ has also partnered with Stewart and his production company, Busboy Productions, on a first-look deal on projects to be produced and developed for the service.

Stewart's new show is striking for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that it seems Stewart is picking up where he left off with The Daily Show. Seemingly a rose by another name, this show will no doubt allow Stewart to do what he does best: Wax poetic and without mercy about the most pressing issues of the day. For longtime fans of Stewart's, this will no doubt be a comforting thought to latch onto. The show also seems to echo Last Week Tonight, HBO's weekly current events-themed show hosted by Daily Show alum John Oliver. In this regard, it will be interesting to see how Stewart differentiates his show from Oliver's and what topics he chooses in an effort to continue that differentiation. Finally, it now looks as if most of the Daily Show folks not named Trevor Noah have now landed on their feet at a variety of major networks and streamers with their own version of The Daily Show. Look no further than Oliver's Last Week Tonight; Larry Wilmore's Peacock show Wilmore; Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report and now, to some degree, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS; and Jordan Klepper's two Comedy Central shows, The Klepper Report and Klepper.