The Daily Show to Spin Off a White House-Set Vertical Soap

The Daily Show is going vertical.

Comedy Central announced Tuesday that the late-night franchise is producing its first microdrama, a serialized political soap opera made for the short, vertically shot format that has become increasingly difficult for Hollywood to ignore.

Its appropriately understated title: The Daily Show Presents: Two Billionaires Fight to Dominate the Country… And My Heart!

Comedy Central says the project is not only The Daily Show’s first microdrama, but the first produced by any late-night franchise.

The story centers on Alonka, the “beautiful daughter” of an aging president who would prefer to spend more of his time in the Oval Office sleeping. That leaves two wealthy technology moguls, Egon Husk and Jiff Davos, competing to build an artificial-intelligence president capable of running the country in his place.

Naturally, both men also want Alonka.

“But their lust for power, and Alonka, leads to dangerously hot complications,” the official description promises.

The names do not require much decoding. Alonka appears to be modeled on Ivanka Trump, while Egon Husk and Jiff Davos combine elements of Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—although Davos’ surname may also nod toward the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Switzerland.

The project will parody both current politics and the conventions of microdramas, the phone-oriented serials built around extremely short episodes, overheated dialogue and cliffhangers designed to keep viewers scrolling. Billionaires, forbidden romances and remarkably complicated family arrangements are recurring fixtures of the format.

Cast members, release date, episode count, and distribution platform have all yet to be announced.

The upcoming microdrama represents a new kind of digital extension for The Daily Show, whose existing online programming has largely consisted of clips from the show and digital exclusives, including the Emmy favorite “Desi Lydic Foxsplains.”