Apple's Problem with Jon Stewart
Zack Sharf
It was almost a throw-away comment, complete with a joke that went over the hosts' heads, but Jon Stewart did not shy away from the up-until-now rumored/anonymously reported notion that he and Apple parted ways because they were concerned about the direction in which he wanted to take the content:
“I wanted a place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season,” Stewart said. “I thought I was going to do it over at — they call it Apple TV+. It’s a television enclave, very small. It’s like living in Malibu. But they decided … they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble.”
Stewart didn't elaborate, but mainly because incredibly, the hosts just moved along to the next topic. Otherwise, it sure sounds like he would have!
I think a lot of people would like to know if his comment meant China. Or AI. Or something else. Obviously, Stewart is going to be biased in this regard as he was clearly fired/cancelled. And yes, it's entirely possible that the shades here are more gray: that Apple felt like they could pull the plug because the numbers for The Problem With Jon Stewart were not great. Were they great, maybe they could swallow whatever he wanted to say. Maybe not.
Either way, it's hard to imagine Stewart would outright lie about such a thing. At the very least, you have to believe that he believes that a part of the reason his show was cancelled by Apple was because they were uncomfortable with some topics he wanted to talk about. If only he had a far more popular perch from which to clear the air right about now...
Update 2/13/24: As Tom Winzig notes on Threads, Jon Stewart more or less kicked off his first show back last night making a joke that they'd be talking about a lot of things in the new version of the show, "Maybe we'll talk about China. Maybe we'll talk about AI"...
Update 4/2/24: And sure enough, Jon Stewart went deeper in on the topic on his own "popular perch" – with guest FTC chair Lina Khan, no less!
M.G. Siegler