Nixed: Jon Stewart's Animated HBO Shorts

For a year and a half, Jon Stewart has ostensibly been working behind the scenes to bring to life a series of digital animated shorts for HBO. But the New York Times reports the project has now been canceled after both parties agreed it was a lot tougher to pull together than they'd originally anticipated. "We all thought the project had great potential, but there were technical issues in terms of production and distribution that proved too difficult given the quick turnaround and topical nature of the material," an HBO statement notes. But just because it's the end of the line for the shorts, which were meant to appear on apps such as HBO Go and HBO Now, doesn't mean Stewart's connection to HBO has been severed: He signed a four-year contract, and the network says it's "excited" for other projects it's got in the works with the ex-Daily Show host. (Stewart recently showed for a Daily Show reunion.)