Anyone who thought that Jon Stewart was going to sit out of this Presidential election cycle was dead wrong. Stewart’s new HBO series will be coming much sooner than expected!

Via Deadline, HBO Programming chief Casey Bloys appeared at the TCA Press Tour and said that Stewart’s new show will hopefully “be up and running by September or October.” Bloys added that “it’s an animated parody of a cable news network. It’s Onion-like, with video and text…It’s very much Jon’s voice and tone.”

That sounds like a more comedic take on The Newsroom than a rehash of Stewart’s Daily Show format. Stewart will also lend his voice to the show, which will be animated in a way that “allows (Stewart) to comment on events in real time.” That probably means limited animation that can be turned around very quickly, which is how the South Park creative team is able to keep its episode topics so timely. A specific animation technique wasn’t mentioned by Bloys, but it will reportedly be similar to the animated Hillary Clinton shorts on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Stewart recently made his on-camera return for coverage of the Republican convention. Stewart is also an executive producer of The Late Show.

The animated format is intriguing, because it could potentially allow Stewart’s character or characters to interact with the real life personalities that he mocks on the show, presumably voiced by other comedians or Stewart himself. Whether the new series will be built around ongoing stories and original characters remains to be seen. But it will still be a vehicle for Stewart to offer commentary on current events, which is something that he does quite well.

Stewart’s currently untitled show will be shown on HBO’s digital networks, and it is widely expected that a half-hour compilation of his shorts will air on HBO itself.

What do you think about Stewart’s upcoming HBO series? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Comedy Central