After years of working behind the scenes, fighting for 9/11 first responders, and occasionally crawling out from beneath Stephen Colbert’s Late Show desk, Jon Stewart is officially planning his return to television. The comedian and former Daily Show host has inked a multiyear first-look deal with Apple TV+, and as part of that deal, he will host what the streaming network’s press release calls a “current-affairs series.†While the hour-long show is still untitled, each episode will tackle a single topic, with each one being “part of the national conversation and [Stewart’s] advocacy work.â€
Apple TV+ has reportedly ordered “multiple seasons†of the show. Each season will be accompanied by a “companion podcast†as well. Stewart will serve as an executive producer through his company, Busboy Productions; he’ll be joined by his manager James Dixon and the former HBO exec Richard Plepler.
Stewart had more recently gotten into directing films, including 2014’s Rosewater and Irresistible, starring Rose Byrne and Stewart’s former Daily Show collaborator Steve Carell, which premiered earlier this year. Speaking with Colbert, another former Daily Show collaborator, on The Late Show in June, Stewart had this to say about the upcoming election and Joe Biden: “We are a country in terrible anguish right now. We are in pain. We are fearful, and we are angry, and we are in pain. And when I see Biden past the shtick, I see a guy who knows what loss is, who knows grief. And I think that that kind of grief humbles you.â€