Five years after stepping away from The Daily Show on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart is preparing to make his return to the small screen with an all-new Apple TV+ current affairs series. The new show, which is currently untitled, comes as part of a huge, multiyear deal with Apple recently inked with the company. Reportedly, Apple is very confident that the new series will be a success, as there are already plans to have it run for multiple seasons.
Currently untitled, Stewart's new show is described as a "current affairs series" that puts Jon Stewart back into the anchor's chair "as he explores a host of topics at the center of both the national conversation and his own advocacy work." In other words, it won't be too far off from what we've seen him do on The Daily Show for about 16 years. This time, however, episodes of his show will be an hour long, and each episode will focus on a single subject. A companion podcast for the series is also expected to be produced.
Stewart will also executive produce under his Busboy Productions banner. Joining him to exec produce are his longtime manager James Dixon and former HBO boss Richard Plepler. The search for a showrunner is now underway. Stewart's new deal with Apple also will include other projects to be developed and produced for the streaming service, so we could be seeing a lot more of his face in the coming years on Apple TV+.
Of course, Stewart is probably best known for hosting The Daily Show between 1999 and 2015. During that time, he managed to capture over 20 Emmy wins with the series taking the gold 10 consecutive years for Outstanding Variety Series. After he passed the torch to Trevor, Stewart has led a mostly-private life, making occasional appearances on television to talk politics. This includes reappearing on The Daily Show along with other programs like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Tapping into his creative side, Stewart also wrote and directed this year's political comedy Irresistable, which starred Steve Carell, Mackenzie Davis, and Chris Cooper.
Hoping to break through into a streaming market that's already very crowded, Apple has been shelling out some big bucks for exclusive content to run on Apple TV+. This has led to some great controversy in recent weeks, following the announcement that the company had acquired the rights to the Peanuts holiday specials. Unhappy that Apple was taking the classic specials off of broadcast television for the first time since 1965, fans have launched a petition to bring them back. In just a couple of days' time, the petition has reached nearly 200,000 signatures.
Taking Peanuts off of television might be putting Apple in some hot water, but bringing Stewart back to the small screen might win over some new Apple TV+ subscribers. There's no word yet on when the new show will begin filming episodes with Stewart behind the desk, or when subscribers can expect it to begin streaming. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.