Why Is Jon Stewart’s Apple TV Show Ending, And What Could This Mean For ‘The Daily Show?’

Jon Stewart fans got a hefty helping of bad news on Thursday. The comedian’s new series, The Problem with Jon Stewart, will not be moving forward with its third season. The show strived to do something than Stewart’s old gig at The Daily Show by taking a deeper dive into singular topics and only releasing episodes once every two weeks. While that approach took a while to catch on, The Problem did break through the cultural zeitgeist in its second season thanks to Stewart’s unrelenting interview style where he pushed back on anti-trans and pro-gun legislators.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Apple and Stewart had agreed to a more aggressive weekly episode drop for the third season. However, things went south when Apple started voicing concerns over the show tackling China and AI, which prompted Stewart to walk:

Sources tell THR that there had been tension between Apple and Stewart ahead of the show’s third season return over topics featured on The Problem. Those same sources note that Apple approached Stewart and informed the host that both sides needed to be “aligned” regarding topics on the show. Stewart, sources say, balked at the idea of being “hamstrung” by Apple, which threatened to cancel the series. Stewart, sources say, wanted to have full creative control of the series and, after Apple threatened to cancel the series, told the tech company that he was walking away from the show rather than have his hands tied.

Naturally, Stewart fans can’t help but notice the timing of the comedian walking away from The Problem. For the past few weeks, The Daily Show has been publicly having issues settling upon a new permanent host to replace Trevor Noah, and look who just became available.