Apple's Jon Stewart talk show struggling against competitors, says report
What you need to know
- A new report says Apple TV+'s Jon Stewart talk show is struggling against its rivals.
- Figures indicate it is the eighth-most in-demand talk show in the U.S
- One eraly March episode reportedly only garnered 40,000 viewers.
A new report claims that Apple TV+ talk show The Problem with Jon Stewart is struggling to gain traction and is lagging far behind its rivals.
As reported by Bloomberg:
According to the report, Samba TV figures indicate that while the first episode of the show drew 180,000 US homes to tune in, the fifth episode that aired last month only brought in 40,000, a 78% decrease on the season premiere. By comparison, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was seen by 844,000 U.S. homes.
More figures from Parrot Analytics purportedly reveal that Stewart's show is the eighth most in-demand talk show in the U.S. ahead of shows from Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden but behind heavyweights Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah.
Despite the low figures, Apple TV+'s head of unscripted and documentaries Molly Thompson said the company was "thrilled" that the show had resonated with viewers all over the world and "sparked complex conversations about critical issues."
As the report notes, the Apple TV+ show does have some quirks to deal with, for example, it can't be a talk show about current or daily events because there's no telling when people will tune in. The report also noted the strange schedule, which aired an episode every two weeks before a four-month hiatus and came back in March with weekly episodes. Stewart joked with viewers on the show's first episode saying "Thank you for watching but my guess is you didn't", surmising that they would instead watch aggregated clips on YouTube before quipping "you don't even know how to get Apple TV, do you?"
Apple TV+ is available on all of Apple's best iPhones, iPads, Macs, and the Best TVs for Apple TV 2022.
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Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9