Jon Stewart Apple Show Axed – Is He Headed Back to ‘Daily Show’?
Jon Stewart‘s current affairs program The Problem with Jon Stewart has been canceled at Apple TV+ after two seasons, potentially opening the door for the beloved host to return to The Daily Show.
According to the New York Times, Apple axed the show due to creative differences with Stewart, citing topics such as China, AI, and how the host would cover the upcoming 2024 presidential election as causing concern among the streamer’s executives.
The show’s staff were informed of the cancelation on Thursday (October 19) ahead of the third season’s start of production.
These creative clashes appear to have been happening for a while, at least according to The Hollywood Reporter, which claims that Apple previously approached Stewart and explained that he needed to be “aligned” with Apple’s views. Stewart is said to have refused and said he’d rather see the show canceled than toe the corporate line.
This isn’t the first time Apple projects have been scrapped due to creative differences. In 2020, Tim Cook apparently stopped the production of a show called Scraper, which was based on the website Gawker, the site that outed Cook’s sexuality in 2011. And a Dr. Dre show, Vital Signs, was allegedly canceled due to its depiction of guns, sex, and drug use.
With Stewart parting ways with Apple, it now adds further fuel to the fire regarding a return to The Daily Show. The late-night Comedy Central talk show has yet to commit to a new permanent host since Trevor Noah‘s exit in December 2022, continuing instead to bring on a rotating line-up of guest hosts.
Many fans have been hoping Stewart could make a return to the Daily Show desk, especially given how he’s talked openly about his love for the show and the void he’s felt since leaving.
“When you lose that structure, you’re untethered from the thing that prevents the bad mind from doing its corrupt best,” he said on the Strike Force Five podcast last month in regards to exiting the Daily Show after 16 years as host. “So I knew I had to fill it with some other things, and I picked music, something I’d always wanted to do.”
“I knew if I didn’t replace that structured day with something I have the type of brain that would slowly… it turns from like, ‘That was a great run,’ to, ‘You failed everyone who ever loved you,’ like pretty fast. It goes South and dark really fast,” he added.
When Stewart left The Daily Show in 2015, it wasn’t because of a falling out or creative issues. “It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working anymore, or that I didn’t know how to do it,” he told The Guardian at the time. “It was more, ‘Yup, it’s working. But I’m not getting the same satisfaction.’”
But as he said himself, “These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it’s OK.”
Perhaps the cycle has come back around?
Jeff Maurer, a former senior writer on HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, recently explained to The Washington Post that the ideal host for The Daily Show would need to be “charismatic and funny” but “have enough gravitas and enough knowledge of what’s going on in the world that you want to know about their opinion.”
“The right comic for that show is a really unique blend of skills sets,” Maurer added. “Somebody can be great at one thing or even five things and still not be quite right for that particular show.”
Stewart certainly fits that description. Fans lauded the comedian for his ability to blend humor with knowledge during his long tenure on The Daily Show. And he’s still relevant today, given that a segment from a 2014 episode on the Israel and Palestine conflict went viral this past weekend.
Whether Stewart has a desire to return to Comedy Central is another question, but it’s a situation we’re closely keeping an eye on.
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