Jon Stewart on The Problem with Jon Stewart: It'll be less entertaining and funny than The Daily Show, but more complete

The Hollywood Reporter

Each episode of Stewart's new AppleTV+ current affairs show, premiering Sept. 30 and airing biweekly, will focus on tackling a "problem" or issue. Episode 1 focuses on veterans. Episode 2 covers essential workers. "Earlier this year, Stewart hired a showrunner (news veteran Brinda Adhikari) and head writer (comedian Chelsea Devantez), then assembled a staff very different from the mostly white comedy writers that made up his last one," explains The Hollywood Reporter's Lacey Rose in a profile of Stewart. "Of the series’ nine writers, 'most of them have never worked on a comedy show,' says Adhikari, who rattles off résumés that include social work and the military. 'It’s not like we were just hiring writers from The Harvard Lampoon.' Collectively, the staff — some of whom appear on air in snippets from the office — mapped out a season’s worth of subjects, from gun control to climate change. Stewart will tell you The Problem was born from 'the same things that animated The Daily Show'; it’s just more 'complete' and, to him, 'more satisfying.' What it isn’t is laugh-out-loud funny, at least not in the way his Daily Show frequently was." Stewart says his show should prove to be more satisfying. "I like that this is more of a conversation," he says. "It’s probably a terrible pitch for the show — 'it’s The Daily Show, but less entertaining' — but also maybe more complete. And people will ask, 'How are you going to live up to expectations?' Well, I’m not, and I never have. That’s not why we do it. We make things, and sometimes those things disappoint people and sometimes they really like them."