Jon Stewart: TV Mogul

E! Online News: "Comedy Central is banking on fans wanting more than a daily dose of Jon Stewart. Literally. TV's anti-Walter Cronkite has obtained financing from his home base cable network to resurrect his long-dormant Busboy Production shingle. In exchange, Stewart will give Comedy Central first crack at picking up all the projects it develops, network president Doug Herzog announced Tuesday. Stewart will run the company with Daily Show executive producer Ben Karlin, a former Onion editor who joined the fake news anchor's staff in 1993, became head writer in 1999 and with whom Stewart cowrote his New York Times bestseller, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. (The tome, a parody of civics textbooks, owes a measure of its success to Wal-Mart, which banned the book for its naked illustrations of the Supreme Court justices, in turn pumping up sales.) The first-look deal allows Stewart and his team to create new comedy series that mine the habitual funnyman's trademark brand of humor. If Comedy Central passes on the shows, Stewart is free to shop them to other channels. 'Jon Stewart is the preeminent voice in comedy today,' Herzog says in a statement. 'As evidenced by the incredible success of America (The Book), Jon and Ben have much more than a nightly TV show's worth of comedy in them and we're incredibly excited about the possibility of making more television with this exceptionally talented group of artists.'"