Apple in April announced “The Problem with Jon Stewart” will launch on Apple TV+ this fall and will be the first project out of a multi-year partnership with Stewart. Today Stewart released a teaser trailer (below) that pokes fun at “The Billionaire Space Race.”
The new, original current affairs series marks Stewart’s return to television since his 20-time Emmy Award-winning run on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” came to a close in 2015.
“The Problem with Jon Stewart” is a multiple season, one-hour, single-issue series which will explore topics that are currently part of the national conversation and his advocacy work. Each season of the series will be further explored in a companion podcast to continue the discussion.
The show will be hosted and executive produced by Stewart through his Busboy Productions. The series is executive produced by showrunner Brinda Adhikari, Stewart’s longtime manager James Dixon, and Richard Plepler through his EDEN Productions, which has an exclusive overall production deal with Apple. Chelsea Devantez is head writer and Lorrie Baranek is the executive in charge of production.
https://twitter.com/jonstewart/status/1417557259886940162
MacDailyNews Take: So, taking the piss out of Branson and Bezos we can see, Misters Suborbital Joyride 1 and 2, but Musk has actually built a company capable of launching into actual space and doing actual work.
Musk’s SpaceX is the first private company to autonomously dock a crew-capable spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), it resupplies the ISS, it’s the largest commercial satellite constellation operator in the world, it’s the first private company to send humans into orbit, it’s the first private company to send humans to the ISS, etc. etc. etc.
Musk’s company does real work in real space.
In golf terms, if NASA is Jack Nicklaus, Musk has already won his first major, Bezos is trying to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour, and Branson is hanging out at the local putt-putt course.
So, Stewart, along with being mostly unfunny here (Mel Brooks did it better over three decades ago) really kills whatever joke there is by including Musk. The bit would have worked better simply by focusing on Branson and Bezos blowing millions in a race to hit in Fake Space.