A couple of years ago, it seemed like John Oliver was a shoo-in to succeed Jon Stewart as host of “The Daily Show.” Instead, Oliver went to HBO, and now Stewart has followed, signing an exclusive four-year production deal with the pay cable giant.
While HBO will have a first-look option for anything Stewart wants to do in TV and movies, initially the main output of the deal will be Stewart sticking to his lane in terms of current events and producing “timely short-form digital content, which will be refreshed on HBO NOW multiple times throughout the day.” (HBO promises that his content will also be available on HBO GO and other platforms.)
It's part of HBO's attempt to beef up its digital offerings, encouraging people to subscribe to the HBO NOW service even in periods when a show they love (say, “Game of Thrones”) is between seasons.
“Appearing on television 22 minutes a night clearly broke me,” Stewart said in the announcement. “I”m pretty sure I can produce a few minutes of content every now and again.”