According to Jon Stewart, streamers like Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video are shrinking writers’ rooms, making them as small as possible. By reducing the number of writers on a show, they can save money, a clear win from a purely logistical standpoint. However, the established comedian believes that they’re trading financial efficiency at the expense of creativity. 

Jon Stewart compared the way streamers approach writers’ rooms to content factories, looking to create episodes or movies with as few resources as possible. By prioritizing efficiency over creativity, he argues that they’re being run like tech businesses pumping out new products, rather than as an artistic process. He described the process as stifling and claimed, “I can’t function like that.”