The Problem With Jon Stewart will not get a third season on Apple TV+, after the host reportedly clashed with Apple over topics that he planned to cover in future episodes. According to The New York Times, Stewart clashed with Apple over planned stories about China and artificial intelligence. Those are both issues that speak to Apple’s sensibilities, as a tech company that has long been criticized for using low-wage laborers in Asia to increase their profit margins. Stewart, the longtime host of The Daily Show, structured The Problem around identifying controversial issues and then doing deep dives into them.
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In most cases, The Problem With Jon Stewart would feature a controversial issue with someone Stewart viewed as part of “the problem” being discussed that week. It is not hard to imagine that both China and AI are issues where Stewart could have targeted potential “victims” with close ties to Apple.
Production on the third season was set to begin in a few weeks. The production team were reportedly informed yesterday that the show was over, after Stewart quit rather than falling in line with Apple, who reportedly said that the series was expected to align with Apple’s views on the issues.
The Times story did not get official comments from Stewart or Apple, relying on quotes from others close to the situation.
During the two seasons made before this collapse, The Problem earned five Emmy nominations. Stewart and his Busboy Productions had signed a multi-year deal with Apple in 2020, and it’s hard to see how any other in-development projects move forward between the two at this point.
It seems possible Stewart could find another home for a similar show, or move most of his staff to a podcast format like Conan O’Brien, although there’s no guarantee; he disappeared from the public eye for a while after departing The Daily Show, after all.
Here’s the synopsis for the series as a whole:
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the world’s problems; it’s harder to pinpoint what’s responsible for creating them; Jon Stewart brings together people impacted by different parts of a problem to discuss how people can drive change.
