Jon Stewart Out at Apple Over Planned Coverage Of China

Jon Stewart will not return to Apple TV+ for a planned third season because of disagreements over three planned single-topic episodes.

A CNN report says Stewart informed staffers Thursday that the two sides parted ways after the company raised concerns about his coverage of China, Israel, and artificial intelligence.

Apple trying to interfere with Stewart's commentary on China, presuming it would be negative, is particularly notable given the company's ties to the region.

China represents nearly a fifth of all Apple’s sales.

While Stewart is an avowed liberal, he's more Bill Maher than Stephen Colbert. Stewart holds common sense above partisanship. He would not shy away from topics like genocide in his coverage of geopolitics.

In fact, Stewart was among the first mainstream voices to lend credence to the idea that Covid-19 originated from a lab in China and that its government covered it up.

Apple can ill-afford to upset the communist party. And likely calculated that Stewart, though a brand name, was not worth the concern.

His show, "The Problem," only averaged around 40,000 viewers according to Samba TV measurements.

The program also failed to capture the same attention as The Daily Show, in part because of the platform and in part because of the content.

The problem with "The Problem" was the humor. There wasn't any.

Though at times unique, Stewart struggled to inject his signature wit into topics like "the problem with white people."

IVY LEAGUE IS PAVING THE ROAD TO HELL | BOBBY BURACK

"The Problem" was set to begin taping episodes of its third season within a couple of weeks.

Neither Apple nor representatives for Stewart responded to FOX News' requests for comment.

Looking ahead, competing streamers like Amazon and Netflix could show interest in Stewart if they believe they could better capitalize on his content than Apple could

Warner Bros. Discovery's Max recently added a CNN vertical that could also find use for Stewart.

Then again, finding a broadcast partner studio that is not compromised by China could be a, well, problem.

Jon Stewart might have to settle for podcasting.