Jon Stewart obtained super-candid about what actually ended his Apple TV+ present, The Downside with Jon Stewart, on a podcast Thursday. He had hinted at inventive variations after the present obtained cancelled, however within the podcast dialogue he went into way more depth, even describing the precise second he knew it was over.
Stewart made the remarks in an extended dialog on the podast The City with Matthew Belloni.
Jon Stewart reveals extra particulars about how his Apple TV+ present ended
“Creative differences” over protecting subjects like China and synthetic intelligence is correct shorthand for why The Downside obtained cancelled, however it doesn’t actually inform the story of what occurred. Now Stewart has advised it, going into depth on Thursday’s version of Belloni’s podcast. First they mentioned Stewart’s lengthy break after internet hosting The Each day Present on Comedy Central for a few years, and the transition to a brand new strategy with The Downside with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+.
“I started having this idea in the back of my head about sort of the difference between weather and climate when it came to the institutions and the media and all these other different things,” Stewart mentioned. “And The Daily Show had always been a little bit more about the weather. We were kind of every day in there and the genesis of the problem was more about what if we looked at it more as climate systems? What causes the weather? How do these things arrive? And I felt invigorated again by it.”
“And then Apple said, we would prefer you not do that. Then I said, oh no, no, but I’m excited again,” he quipped. “And they were like, yes, yes, we are less, though. So, we had some disagreements about the direction of it, the tone of it, the subject matter, et cetera.”
‘That’s the deal all of us make’
And apparently that was solely the start of the problematic relationship. After the present’s cancellation, Stewart publicly commented on how Apple didn’t need him saying issues which may get him in bother.
“So it wasn’t that it was going to get me in trouble, I guess. I’m accustomed to working in, for better or for worse, more legacy media. Companies that are invested in content in a way that is what created their brands and what created their names,” he defined on the podcast. “And so for them, the identity of that brand and that content is really important. And establishing it, like for Comedy Central, that kind of maybe sometimes provocative, sometimes explicit content, kind of made their name. Along with South Park and Chappelle and all those guys.”
Apple didn’t censor him
Picture: Apple TV+
Stewart clarified that he doesn’t really feel Apple censored him.
“Well, first of all, I don’t consider this like they didn’t censor me, it wasn’t free speech. When you work for a corporate entity, that’s part of the deal, even at Comedy Central,” he mentioned. “The deal is I get to do what I want until they think it’s going to hurt their beer sales or whatever it is that they want to sell, and that’s the deal we all make.”
The precise second he knew it was over
Surprisingly, Stewart even revealed the precise second he knew his present on Apple TV+ must finish. He realized “it went south” after Apple’s response to Stewart’s interview with economist Larry Summers.
“I had had the idea that using the Fed to whip inflation was ignoring the fact that so much of inflation is for profit. The Fed is a blunt tool, and Larry Summers was very big on, the Fed has to cut interest rates, and if that means we go into a recession, and hey, 10 million people lose their jobs, but hey, utilitarian approach,” he mentioned.
Stewart described how he and Summers debated the difficulty, with Stewart talking up for workers as he argued that every one that elevating of rates of interest softens the job market whilst company income soar whereas wage stagnate. Within the spirited dialogue, he obtained Summers to concede the purpose.
“We play the interview for the audience,” he mentioned. “They explode like we just hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.”
However Apple executives reacted otherwise. A lot otherwise.
“And the Apple executives walk into the dressing room afterwards with a look on their face, and I was like, oh my God, did the factory explode? Like, what happened?” Stewart described. “And they go, are you going to use that Summers thing? I was like, the one where the crowd cheered?”
Watch Stewart’s interview with Larry Summers
Apple was ‘protecting a different agenda’
He mentioned he and Apple went forwards and backwards on the Summers interview for a few weeks.
“It was then that I realized, oh, our aims do not align in any way,” Stewart mentioned. “We’re trying to make the best, most insightful execution of the intention that we can make, but they have it, you know, they’re protecting a different agenda. And that’s when I knew we’re in trouble. And it continued that way.”
Stewart talked about getting his host and producer legs below him after season one and hitting his stride extra in season two. However that’s when working with Apple obtained harder. However he has no in poor health will towards the iPhone large.
“So as season three approached, and then there was the writers strike, when they finally got a hold of the episodes that we were going to be doing, the shit kind of hit the fan,” he mentioned. “And I realized we’re not going to be able to do the season that we planned, and everything was going to be a fight.”
“And I mean this with all due respect, like no malice. They are well within their rights.”