Six years after signing off at The Daily Show, Jon Stewart is getting ready to sign back on.
Stewart is set to debut his new current affair series The Problem with Jon Stewart, an Apple TV+ show that focuses on one issue every episode, later this month. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of its Sept. 30 premiere, he broke down how The Problem is similar to and different from The Daily Show.
"Honestly, it's the same things that animated The Daily Show, we're just adjusting the dials slightly," he said. "If The Daily Show was the weather report, I thought maybe it'd be interesting to do something that was [about] the climate."
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Stewart added that one key difference is that since The Daily Show aired weeknights, it was more "forgiving" in the sense that "when we s--- the bed, there was always that, 'Well, we'll get it tomorrow.'" That's not the case with the new show, which will debut episodes biweekly.
"But also, in some ways, it can be more satisfying," Stewart added. "I like that this is more of a conversation. It's probably a terrible pitch for the show — 'it's The Daily Show, but less entertaining' — but also maybe more complete."
According to the Reporter, the first episode of the show deals with the treatment of veterans in the United States, while the second episode focuses on essential workers. Since leaving The Daily Show, Stewart has lobbied for 9/11 first responders and veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, and he told the Reporter the series will explore how "the most seemingly obvious, simple things got derailed by the systems that are put in place to actually get them done." He added, "Like, why is it so f---ing hard? I guess the show could be called, "Why is it so f---ing hard?'"
