Jon Stewart’s new HBO animated show to premiere in fall 2016
By Hector Cruz
The former Daily Show host’s new digital series for HBO will debut ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Fans of Jon Stewart who instantly became nostalgic for his memorable takes on current events during his appearances on The Late Show’s recent RNC coverage will be happy to know that the retired Daily Show host will back on screens this fall, but in a different form. HBO previously announced a four-year deal with the comedian where he would produce short-form content for their digital platforms, and they have now revealed more details about the project.
According to Deadline, HBO’s programming chief Casey Bloys said Saturday at the Television Critics Association tour that it’ll be “an animated parody of a cable news network” that’s “Onion-like, with video and text,” which Stewart will voice. The series will use a similar technique as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s cartoon versions of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Stewart serves as executive producer on the CBS late-night talk show.
The partnership with 3-D graphics company Otoy will allow Stewart to comment on news events in real time, including multiple times a day via HBO Now, as well airing in a half-hour format on the linear network down the road. The move will certainly give the satirist more creative freedom, while not constricting him to the talk show format. Bloys would not confirm an exact premiere date, but expressed hope that it’ll arrive sometime in September or October, just in time for the 2016 election.
Stewart briefly returned to late-night TV to give his take on the presidential race in what ended up being a rant against Fox News anchor Sean Hannity’s hypocritical support of Donald Trump, which received an angry response from the conservative commentator. Earlier in the week, he helped Colbert revive his Colbert Report persona, as well as his popular segment “The Word.” Stewart previously mocked Trump at a USO event, and makes a cameo in Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition, which he filmed in 2014 while he was still hosting The Daily Show.
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It’s undeniable that Stewart’s tenure as host of the Comedy Central series changed the late-night TV landscape, spurring the success of current hosts such as John Oliver on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal on TBS, and Colbert, who received a ratings bump for his live episodes after struggling to keep up with his competitors throughout the first half of the summer. Meanwhile, Stewart’s successor Trevor Noah has done some of his strongest work thus far during as well as right before the conventions, finally finding his voice as an outsider to American politics who’s unafraid of criticizing both sides.
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