Brow Beat

Jon Stewart Is Making an Animated Show About Cable News

Jon Stewart and President Barack Obama at a USO event on May 5.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

HBO offered some details on the show Jon Stewart is developing for the network at its Television Critics Association press tour session Saturday, Variety reports. The show will be “an animated parody of a cable news network with an Onion-like portal,” according to HBO’s head of programming Casey Bloys. The goal is to get the show up and running before the election, ideally in September or October, though no premiere date has been set.

The show’s model will include 30-minute episodes that will air on HBO’s cable channel, with shorter, more frequent updates on HBO Now and HBO Go. Stewart has been working with cloud graphics company Otoy to develop an animation process that will allow him to work quickly enough to comment “in real time” on current events. (HBO has a stake in Otoy, though it’s unclear why it’s investing so much in a new process when Syncro-Vox has been around since the ’50s.) It’s reassuring to know that, if our next president turns out to be a warmongering buffoon, Stewart will be back at work.

It’s going to be just like old times: