Jon Stewart Is Coming Back To Television With A New Animated Show For HBO

Ever since Jon Stewart retired last year, late night satirical news just hasn’t been the same. Sure his contemporaries like Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert and new Daily Show host Trevor Noah have been doing a good job in his absence, but the reality is that Stewart was always the master – as his recent guest appearance on The Late Show attests.

The good news is that it looks like we won’t be without him for much longer. Speaking at the TV Critics Association summer press tour on Saturday, HBO programming president Casey Bloys shed some new light on Stewart’s previously penned four-year production deal with the cable network, including some intriguing new information about the comedian’s upcoming show

“The idea is it will be an animated parody of a cable news network with an Onion-like portal,” said Bloys. “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.”

According to Bloys, the show will make use of “simple animation” to ensure that Stewart can comment “in real time with what’s happening during the day’s news events.” We can only hope it’ll leave him with enough time to look after his new pony.

While it’s a shame that we might not get to seem much of Stewart’s face (or his glorious new beard), the idea of him working in animation is definitely interesting – and lampooning cable networks like Fox News sounds right up his alley. Plus the fact that he’ll be working over at HBO means a reunion with John Oliver is basically inevitable, right?

The hope is that Stewart might be able to start releasing content as early as September or October, although that timeline is yet to be confirmed.

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h/t Variety