In new talk show, Jon Stewart finally gets to play newsman
Jon Stewart, who left “The Daily Show” in 2015, has officially returned to television. “The Problem With Jon Stewart” recently debuted on Apple TV+, with new episodes scheduled to arrive every two weeks. It incorporates a little of “The Daily Show,” in that for some portion of the hourlong program Stewart sits at a desk (though not dressed like a news anchor and not on a set dressed like a news show) and says hopefully funny things to a briefly glimpsed live audience.
It is a current affairs show, but does not play off breaking news. Each episode is organized around a big theme refracted through an opening monologue, panel discussions, short filmed comedy bits and a behindthe-scenes glimpse into the producers’ meeting.
Above all, there is an activist impulse at work here, foreshadowed in the opening credits, which stylistically cribs from punk rock and agitprop posters; Stewart’s guests will be stopping by not because they’re on a promotional tour, but because they can speak with some authority to the issues the episode’s big theme proposes.
“War” presents a group of veteran-activists working to bring attention to, and to get the Veterans Administration to recognize and treat, the toxic and carcinogenic effects of the open “burn pits” the military routinely used during various Gulf wars. “Freedom” brings together Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, facing prison for “cyberlibel”; former Venezuelan political prisoner Francisco Marquez; and
Bassem Youssef, known as the Egyptian Jon Stewart, to discuss the slippery slope to autocracy.
As panel discussions go, these are a lot more productive than a Bill Maher roundtable or the dueling banjos of cable news. If they are earnest, even a little sentimental at times, that only helps to put the seal on their sincerity. If they are not necessarily revelatory, they are heartening, even when the subject is disheartening; they remind us that not everyone is satisfied to let things continue to fall apart. That the information is not all new underscores our tendency to sweep these issues under the table.
Stewart refers to “The Problem With” as a “comedy hybrid” show, which is true enough; so far, the noncomedic elements are the stronger. Stewart is acting more as a journalist here than a comedian doing an impression of one.
It’s difficult to judge these sorts of programs on their opening episodes; you hold them up to the host’s earlier shows, or other hosts’ current shows, for comparison, but it’s rare that everything works out of the box. “The Problem
With Jon Stewart” does feel a little new-colt wobbly, and the host spends some time searching for his old rhythm, the soft-loud-soft approach, in which he rockets from calm to horror to a person crouched in a corner croaking “help.”
Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” which ran half the length of “The Problem With,” was filled with other faces and voices — a deep bench of talent that included John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. You get a lot more Stewart here, and he is not exactly the same man he was six years ago when he turned his platform over to Trevor Noah. Back then he was on television most nights, a driver of cultural conversations, and possibly even public policy.
In those days, Stewart always emphasized that what he was doing on “The Daily Show” was not news but comedy, but there was more to it than that. Henny Youngman is comedy, too, and no one ever mistook him for a pundit or a trusted news source. If such confusion was not precisely his fault, it was nevertheless his doing. “The Problem With Jon Stewart” is him owning up.