Is Jon Stewart Trying To Force a Fight With Skydance Like His Apple Show?

When Stephen Colbert was fired from The Late Show last year, his dear pal Jon Stewart basically dared their corporate overlords at Paramount to fire him as well. During a fiery episode of The Daily Show, Stewart went so far as to enlist a Black gospel choir to help him sing “Go eff yourself.” Despite all of this, Paramount did not fire Stewart. Instead, it extended his contract earlier this month, making him the Monday night host of The Daily Show from now until at least December 2028.

As LateNighter reported last week, Comedy Central needs Jon Stewart way more than Stewart needs it. And with its parent company now saddled with the massive debt of absorbing Warner Bros. Discovery into the amalgamation now known as Skydance, every dollar counts:

The Daily Show is one of the two shows (with South Park) still keeping the channel alive and collecting monthly sub fees from cable, satellite, and live TV streaming providers like YouTube TV.

Those fees amount to somewhere between 20 and 30 cents a month per subscriber. Comedy Central is now available in about 68 million homes. That adds up to between $13.6 million and $20.4 million a month in subscriber fees alone. Add advertising revenue, and the channel remains a pretty potent asset.

But if TDS passed into history, cable providers would have one more reason to drop the channel—and the fees they’re paying for it.

Of course, the big question is how willing is Stewart to play ball? I’m sure he’s happy to keep his staff employed, and that’s probably no small thing to him. But he famously blew up The Problem with Jon Stewart when Apple tried to censor an episode on AI and China. Would he do that again with The Daily Show?

During Monday night’s episode, Stewart took a swing at one of Skydance’s biggest investors: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. After railing against the president for his ties to the prince, Stewart made sure to roast his parent company in the process.

Via The Wrap:

Stewart did an over-exaggerated gulp and stated, “By the way, Your Highness, thank you for your investment in Skydance.”

After a couple awkward beats, the “Daily Show” crowd responded with a mix of groaning, hooting and applauding. The laughter ramped up as Stewart added: “We’ll make you proud.”

Will Skydance even care? At the moment, probably not. The Daily Show is essentially getting the same treatment as South Park where it’s outside the purview of the FCC and nobody cares what’s being said as long as the money is coming in. Then again, the president has recently taken up a habit of writing blog-length rants about late night hosts who only glazed him 99% of the way and not 100, so the situation could escalate quickly.