Jon Stewart Heads To HBO With New Four-Year Deal
After leaving behindThe Daily Showat Comedy Central earlier this year,Jon Stewarthas found a new home atHBOwith a four-year deal that will have him creating a variety of entertainment for the cable network.
Stewart will begin working at HBO by creating some short-form digital content that will be showcased on HBO Now, HBO Go and some other platforms. The focus of this first endeavor isn’t very clear right now, as it’s only described as “timely short-form digital content.” That’s very similar to what the comedian did onThe Daily Show, but it sounds like this Jon Stewart HBO deal won’t be quite as intensive.
THRhas word on the new deal at HBO, which also includes a first-look option for other film and TV ventures. And considering Stewart took time off fromThe Daily Showa couple years ago to make his feature directorial debut withRosewater, it stands to reason that he might have some other film and TV ideas that he wants to work on.
But as we said, first up is this digital content project. Stewart will be collaborating with cloud-graphics company OTOY, Inc. to develop new technology that will allow Stewart to produce the timely content that will reportedly be “refreshed on HBO Now multiple times throughout the day.”
But don’t expect him to get back into a regular routine as rigorous asThe Daily Show. Stewart says, “Appearing on television 22 minutes a night clearly broke me. I’m pretty sure I can produce a few minutes of content every now and again.” It’s not clear if the short-form digital content will be news-oriented likeLast Week Tonight with John Oliveror maybe something a little broader in scope. But it’s just nice knowing that we’ll have Stewart doing more original stuff again.
Stewart has a history with HBO that goes back to his stand-up comedy days nearly 20 years ago. He starred in a stand-up special calledJon Stewart: Unleavened(which you can watch in full online), hosted the specialGeorge Carlin: 40 Years of Comedyas well asMr. Show with Bob & David, and appeared a handful of times onThe Larry Sanders Show.
And now he’s joining his formerDaily Showcolleague John Oliver at the network that has quickly become a key player in news satire, rivaling even the work that Stewart was doing atThe Daily Show. I’ll be interested to see what kind of content Stewart churns out at HBO.
