Jon Stewart: Here's what we know about his next project
Stewart has reportedly signed on with a network. The former 'Daily Show' host aired his final episode of the Comedy Central program this past summer.
Jon Stewart attends the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Fans of “The Daily Show” bid goodbye to Jon Stewart this summer, but he won’t be gone for long.
Stewart has reportedly signed on with HBO to create short content that will appear on HBO Go and HBO Now, the network’s streaming service. Stewart’s pieces will reportedly look at “current events through his unique prism.”
The former “Daily Show” host joins his former colleague John Oliver at HBO – Oliver hosts the popular HBO current events program “Last Week Tonight.”
Many of the alumni of “The Daily Show” have gone on to find success but they have all done it in markedly different ways, showing how many ways TV content can find an audience today. Following his job on the cable network Comedy Central, Stewart is going on to create new content for a streaming platform. Streaming services have become some of the biggest players in TV, with Netflix, for example, producing such Emmy-winning and -nominated shows as “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black.” Networks like HBO make streaming services an important part of their business plans, with some fans of HBO shows like “Game of Thrones” using only streaming to tune in to their favorite shows.
Like Stewart, Oliver took a job at a cable network and while cable networks would have been viewed as less central to the pop culture conversation years ago, he now finds himself part of the zeitgeist by appearing on HBO.
Former “Daily Show” correspondent Stephen Colbert took a more traditional TV route. He took the host position on CBS’s “Late Show” that was vacated by David Letterman and now heads up a talk show that’s similar in format to NBC’s storied “Tonight Show.”
Meanwhile, former “Daily Show” correspondent Samantha Bee will host a late-night show on TBS beginning this January. As more and more channels work to produce original content, networks as varied as A&E, Pivot, and WGN America are all producing new shows – a business that was the exclusive domain of network TV not too long ago.