A ‘PROBLEM’ SOLVED

Stewart hired a newswoman and a comic, then threw the old playbook out the window: ‘Everything is an evolution’

When Brinda Adhikari first heard Jon Stewart was in search of a showrunner for his Apple TV+ series, she assumed her newswoman background would preclude her. Up to that point, the only crossover she’d had with Stewart was many years earlier, when some silly weather segment she’d produced for ABC News landed in a shame reel on The Daily Show. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is going to end up on The Daily Show,’ and it fucking did,” she recalls. “In the newsroom, we never wanted to end up on The Daily Show, it was a huge motivator for us to try to be better.”

What Adhikari would soon learn is that Stewart had no intention of repeating himself. Sure, he wanted to hire those with Hollywood experience for his next act — but he wanted those without it even more. In fact, once he’d tapped Adhikari and head writer Chelsea Devantez (Girls5eva), whom he’d met working on his scrapped HBO effort, the trio set out to blow up the traditional staffing process. “So much of hiring is done through, ‘You know this person, who knows this person,’ ” says Adhikari, “and we wanted to see what it would be like to truly make it open.”

They made the application packet “self-submit,” which meant no Hollywood manager or agent was required, and short enough that it could be done while working another job. What came of it: 2,400 blind submissions, and that’s just for writers. Among those who applied were parents, veterans, comics, even a truck driver who wrote comedy on the side. “Everything is an evolution,” says Stewart. “People say, ‘Oh, this is different,’ and I go, ‘Well, hopefully, yeah. You learn and you try new things.’ ”