Big Tech-funded TV facing a 'schism' in production styles claims Jon Stewart

Stewart, who has returned to "The Daily Show" as one of a rotating array of hosts, spoke with fellow comic Conan O'Brien on the latter's podcast about how making TV shows has changed. He pointed to Apple and Amazon specifically as tech companies that are now producing TV shows and movies.

He lamented how tech giants have brought a ruthless efficiency to television production. Stewart likened the change in styles to the shakeup that happens when powerful tech executives take over smaller companies.

"Silicon Valley walked in, in the way that Elon Musk walked into Twitter and went, How many people work here? 10,000? Make it two'" Stewart said.

Stewart saw his own Apple TV+ big-issue discussion show "The Problem With Jon Stewart" canceled a year ago for what he called "different agendas."

The death of the "writer's room"

Stewart specifically focused on the reduction of the traditional "writer's room," where storylines were traditionally hashed out among a group. He admitted that this "legacy business" model for scripted shows was "the most inefficient way" to create programs.

"The ethos of legacy entertainment is we've created this incredibly eccentric business where you need an agent and a manager and a lawyer, and they're gonna take about 60 percent of what you make, but without them, there's nothing you can do," Stewart noted. "And you join the studio, and the studio will give you a deal and you'll sit in your room."

Apple and other tech companies' styles of making their own products, services, and entertainment relies on far fewer people. Tech executives, in particular, promote only those who can handle high-pressure deadlines and yet reliably produce quality work.

"I can't function like that," Stewart admitted. O'Brien agreed, noting that his comedy-writer friends are finding it much harder to get work.

Stewart has previously pointed out that Apple blocked him from having US Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on "The Problem"'s spinoff podcast, which set off a conflict that ultimately ended his Apple TV+ show.

Streaming TV productions: big budgets, but tighter control

"That's the schism, the earthquake that's been going through it," he said. "So, now Apple and Amazon, they go in and they go, Writer's room? Wait, you've got 14 writers and they're with you from start to finish on the production?'"

"Well," Steward said in reply to the hypothetical summary of Apple and Amazon's concerns, "it's important for the writers to be invested and also we're showing them how they're on the page because it's different about the page to the screen. They've got to understand how that works and understand how we interact with the props."

"And they're like, They can have three weeks and it's gotta be on Zoom. And you can have four of them'," Steward said. O'Brien agreed, saying the way TV is being produced is "changing radically."

"These companies don't believe in institutional knowledge that allows people to grow and get better and create more," Steward said. "What they believe now is the auteur system, which has always sort of existed within film and TV ... and this idea of ruthlessly efficient content factories, where what matters is the real estate and not the individual creative," he added.

The interview with Stewart appeared on the September 27, 2024 episode of the "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" podcast. The episode is available on YouTube, and should soon appear on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify Podcasts.