Five and a half years have passed since then Jon Stewart is gone The daily show, concluding a mandate that saw him rise, in the eyes of some fans, to the level of the minor god in the world of political comedy. In the years that followed, Stewart tried a number of new vocations: Director, recurrent Late show prophet, cattle fighter. But I always knew he would probably one day return to the comforting breast of the television he left, and now we know when that day will be. Anyway. (It will be sometime this fall.)
This is on Apple, who announced today that Stewart’s new series, The problem with Jon Stewart, will hit streaming TV this fall, bringing Stewart back into a world of comedy and commentary that he and his disciples helped shape. Not for nothing Problem– described as “a multiple season, an hour, a single edition” – very similar to previous shows Daily show correspondents such as John Oliver, Hasan Minaj, and Wyatt Cenac have all hosted in recent years deep dives into topics worth more than the time given to a glib monologue joke. (Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether that “single-number” descriptor means Stewart addresses a single issue per episode or per season, but in any case, the intention to mix journalism and comedy in a familiar package is obvious there. )
Apple signed an agreement with Stewart last year after a previous agreement with HBO failed to produce a series of promised projects, including an animated series and a couple of special offers. Apple obviously uses Stewart’s continuous call, but there’s a clear question at stake here: is love still effective? The Trump era, which Stewart expected for the most part, was extremely harsh with the idea that political satire, in itself, had the ability to make real-world changes – once an essential part of Daily show appeal. Is it Stewart’s once-strong mix of sharp comedy, moral outrage, and intentional absurdity? We’ll probably find out some time this fall, when The problem with Jon Stewart that’s enough.
[via The Verge]