The third season of Jon Stewart’s The Problem With Jon Stewart was weeks away from taping, when staffers learned that production had been halted over “creative differences.”
Those differences were reportedly over Stewart’s intended rosters of guests and topics, which were to include artificial intelligence and China.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Apple directly approached Stewart, and told him that he needed to be “aligned” with the company’s views on the aforementioned topics.
Stewart essentially told Apple to go fuck themselves, and decided instead to walk.
The NYT reported that Stewart informed his staff Thursday that Apple pushed back on topics relating to China and artificial intelligence. Production on season three was already under way, with filming poised to begin shortly.
Sources tell THR that there had been tension between Apple and Stewart ahead of the show’s third season return over topics featured on The Problem. Those same sources note that Apple approached Stewart and informed the host that both sides needed to be “aligned” regarding topics on the show. Stewart, sources say, balked at the idea of being “hamstrung” by Apple, which threatened to cancel the series. Stewart, sources say, wanted to have full creative control of the series and, after Apple threatened to cancel the series, told the tech company that he was walking away from the show rather than have his hands tied. -Hollywood Reporter
None of the reporting details what exactly Apple’s problem was with the AI or China topics, but Apple does rely on the CCP to let sleep-deprived children make all of our wonderful toys, so there’s that.
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