Apple TV is not forgiven for making it “untenable” for Jon Stewart to do his show, The Problem, leading to its cancellation in 2023.
On the latest episode of The Weekly Show, Stewart compared his time on Apple TV (then Apple TV+) to an “abusive relationship.” Stewart has skewered the tech giant before, but a fan question about whether he had ever been fired brought it all back to the surface on Wednesday.
“Apple made it untenable for us to continue doing our show,” he began. “And then Apple fired me. Well, they didn’t really fire me—they just told me that to work there, I would have to disown everything that I ever held dear,” he continued. “And, so I left.”
Stewart hosted the show from September 30, 2021, to October 2023. The series marked the host’s return to television after he ended a 16-year run at The Daily Show in 2015. The Problem won an Emmy for its second season, but was canceled ahead of its third—reportedly over “creative differences.”
Stewart remained quiet about what caused his exit until a few months later, ahead of his shock return to The Daily Show in February 2024.
He told CBS News, “I very much wanted to have some kind of place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season,” but “they decided that they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble.”
He revealed more, still relatively tame comments, in June that year on The Town podcast. “They didn’t censor me,” he said, “When you work for a corporate entity—that’s part of the deal, even at Comedy Central: The deal is, I get to do what I want until they think it’s gonna hurt their beer sales or whatever it is that they wanna sell.”
Stewart was done holding back on Wednesday, however, when Apple CEO Tim Cook accompanied Donald Trump to China as part of the president’s entourage of billionaires. Cook, Elon Musk, and leaders of other megacompanies, including Boeing, Goldman Sachs, and Mastercard, rounded out the group. According to U.S. officials, the heavyweights are tagging along because Trump wants to discuss creating a board of investment and a board of trade with China.
“You know what it was? It was self-care. It was walking out of what was becoming an abusive relationship,” Stewart said of his time at Apple. “And if you’ve ever been in an abusive relationship with a multinational conglomerate…”
“The hard part about breaking up with Apple is that all the breakup songs are on their technology. It’s almost impossible to avoid. Very difficult.”
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