Jon Stewart’s Return to TV has Issues!

Jon Stewart is back with his new beard and all sorts of issues in the first teaser for his upcoming show, The Problem With Jon Stewart, premiering on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+, from Thursday 30 September

Perhaps inevitably, satirist Jon Stewart couldn’t stay away from the dumpster fire that is American public life for long. This new weekly show – which is going to be accompanied by a regular podcast – will tackle one major issue per episode. Stewart will once again be recording his show in front of a live studio audience in New York with a style that mixes sharp wit with a degree of earnest liberal despair. A short teaser, which addressed the pressing problem of Dicks in Space (don’t pretend you don’t know exactly who he’s talking about), suggested a smattering of sketches too, mixing social commentary with an edge of surrealism.

FIRST LOOK SHOW TEASER

Episode one centers on veterans, a cause du jour of Stewart’s, with its focus on the millions being denied health care despite the devastating effects they’re facing from toxic exposure to burn pits. Per the new format, Stewart welcomes a panel of sufferers and their impassioned spouses to discuss the issue, then sits with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to push for answers. Both Plepler and Stewart’s longtime agent, James “Babydoll” Dixon, who’s also a producer on the series, tell stories of the tears shed at the first taping. Even Stewart felt it necessary to acknowledge the relative earnestness during the inaugural show, at one point joking about the ribbing he’d get from his stand-up brethren the next time he sets foot inside the Comedy Cellar: “They’re all going to be like, ‘Ooh, look, Mother Teresa just came.'”