When HBO signed Jon Stewart to a four-year production deal after his departure from “The Daily Show,” details were scant about what fruit that deal might bear. Now some of those details are emerging.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour Saturday, HBO programming president Casey Bloys discussed the multiplatform project that Stewart is working on for the premium cable channel.
“The idea is it will be an animated parody of a cable news network with an Onion-like portal,” Bloys said. The project will be structured to allow Stewart to release multiple pieces of short-form content — video and text — through HBO’s digital platforms, but will also include a linear-television element, likely in the form of a half-hour series.
“He is establishing an animation studio,” Bloys said of Stewart. He added that he is hoping that Stewart could begin releasing content as soon as September or October, though possibly not until later in the fall.
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Having an animation studio at his disposal will allow Stewart “to comment in real time with what’s happening during the day’s news events,” Bloys said. “It will be simple animation … but it does allow him to respond fairly quickly to what’s going on in the day’s news.”
In April, HBO acquired a stake in Otoy, the 3D graphics firm that Stewart is working with on his animated project.
Stewart reunited this month with former Comedy Central colleague Stephen Colbert in a series of appearances on CBS’ “The Late Show” tied to the Republican and Democratic national conventions.
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