Trevor Noah Announces He's Leaving "The Daily Show"

[JamesG]

Trevor thanks the staff on the 7th anniversary of "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" and makes an important announcement.

[Babalu]

Who gives a ****?

[TMC]

Trevor Noah made The Daily Show better

Nobody wanted to follow Jon Stewart, but over seven years Noah succeeded in carving out his own distinctive, often terrific niche.

BY DANIEL FIENBERG

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 9:35AM

As late-night television hosting transitions go, The Daily Show had a smooth one back in 2015.

Jon Stewart announced he was leaving that February. In March, Comedy Central revealed that his replacement would be Trevor Noah, a barely known correspondent from the show. Stewart filmed his last episode in August and Noah filmed his first episode in September.

In short, this wasn’t Jay Leno and David Letterman jockeying for position at NBC to take over for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, leading to late night’s version of the Great Schism. It also wasn’t Conan O’Brien taking over as host of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno sent into primetime exile, rebuilding his strength and preparing to leave the Elba of the 10 p.m. hour to retake the throne at the earliest sign of weakness.

No, everybody at The Daily Show said and did the right things, conveyed the impression of an orderly transition of power. The network, the show and Stewart all gave every impression of wanting to see Noah succeed, and I sincerely believe that they did. At the same time, everybody had to know that anybody taking over for Jon Stewart was doomed to fail.

Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn as host in early 1999. Kilborn had done well enough to get a presumably more lucrative gig replacing Tom Snyder on CBS’ The Late Late Show. The Daily Show he was leaving was a clever, frivolous, fratty program defined by a few well-loved recurring bits — Five Questions, Your Moment of Zen — and a few well-loved correspondents. Still, it wasn’t THE DAILY SHOW and, frankly, Jon Stewart at that point wasn’t JON STEWART. But Jon Stewart and The Daily Show came of age together and became perhaps the key piece of comedic discourse for the ’00s. The show became smart. The show became truly funny. And the correspondents, one after another, became breakout stars.

Then Stewart left the juggernaut, and he left it in the hands of a 31-year-old South African comic who, from the outside, was nobody’s top choice. Fans wanted almost every long-tenured correspondent instead. The network reportedly ran the job by big names from Amy Schumer to Louis C.K. to Chris Rock. But why would anybody have wanted it? Anybody who took that seat was always only going to be the guy who replaced Jon Stewart. Doomed to fail.

On Thursday night, Noah announced his upcoming departure from The Daily Show, timed almost exactly to his seventh anniversary with the show. If The Daily Show With Trevor Noah was a failure — and I can’t emphasize enough that IT WAS NOT — it was a triumphant failure.

It wasn’t just that Stewart left Noah having to live up to a name and reputation. Stewart left Noah having to deal with a crowded late-night landscape, one either dominated by or about to be dominated by other Daily Show veterans. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver premiered in April 2014, the same month that Stephen Colbert was announced as David Letterman’s The Late Show successor. Samantha Bee, many fans’ favorite as a possible Stewart replacement, headed over to TBS to launch Full Frontal.

All of this was happening as America’s attention was turning to a different kind of succession as the race began to elect the person who would follow Barack Obama as president — a race that received the ultimate comedic gift with the presence of thoroughly laughable dark horse Donald Trump. The Trump jokes kept coming and coming and coming. Then they weren’t jokes anymore and everybody had to adapt to one new normal after another. That was before an impeachment, a global pandemic, another election, a darkly farcical insurrection, another impeachment and more. Stewart’s exit upended the late-night world and you could argue — if you choose to put a lot of stock in Jon Stewart’s secret powers — that he upended the universe. How was Trevor Noah supposed to fix everything?

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah was only occasionally the kind of essential, appointment-viewing TV that The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was for much of its run. But in very little time, Noah made the show his own. Stewart’s simmering rage and Noah’s playful, sing-song irritation weren’t the same, but Noah found a way to adapt The Daily Show around his own voice, all the while ignoring the litany of banal “The Daily Show isn’t funny anymore!” or “Trevor Noah killed The Daily Show!” comments online.

Maybe you felt that way. Maybe you still feel that way. Humor is — little-known fact here — subjective. But I never thought Noah was ever conspicuously unfunny or conspicuously bad. He was maybe conspicuously unsteady or conspicuously green while he and the writers figured out which jokes he could tell that Stewart couldn’t, which parts of Stewart’s shtick Noah couldn’t replicate, and little things like standing for a monologue or sitting down.

But he got to a solid place and the show evolved. Ratings went down and then up and then down, but that was in part because Noah’s audience was younger and he recognized early that there was value in tailoring material specifically to be digested the next day online, often in longer and slightly more serious formats. His monologues got better. His skills as an interviewer, fairly awkward for a few years, got better. And he took advantage of the show’s shifting identity to welcome a wide array of new guests, more women and more people of color, more people who didn’t fit into the “Who’s got a new movie to promote this week?” niche that late night relies on. Noah never got good at the pretty-young-actor genre of interview, and I almost always could anticipate, just from guest listings, which conversations I would be able to skip entirely or check out on after a question or two. But when he was engaged? Noah was a good interviewer.

And Noah smartly grew to rely on his exceptional team of correspondents, starting with carryovers like Hasan Minhaj and his own new team led by Roy Wood Jr., Desi Lydic and Ronny Chieng, expanding outward with Jordan Klepper, Dulcé Sloan, Michelle Wolf, Gina Yashere, Jaboukie Young-White and more. My impression from the outside is that Noah empowered his onscreen talent to take more ownership on the show, but it’s completely possible that they just felt more like equal partners than under the previous regime, when even manifestly talented people came across as satellites orbiting around Stewart.

I grew to really like the series that The Daily Show became, and to respect it. Others did as well, as suggested by both Noah’s expanded profile — hosting gigs from the Grammys to the White House Correspondents Dinner followed — and a return to Emmy fields where voters initially snubbed the show after Stewart left.

But maybe The Daily Show With Trevor Noah wasn’t a pinnacle show in quite the same way as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. It was one good and important voice among many, a show I anticipated less eagerly than Last Week Tonight or Full Frontal or newcomers like Desus & Mero and The Rundown With Robin Thede or a particularly robust monologue from Colbert or Seth Meyers. Sometimes, heaven forbid, I even disagreed with things Noah said, felt that he was just a bit glib, a bit too soundbite-driven, like the jokes he was making were the same jokes I’d seen on Twitter earlier in the day. I still watched.

Noah’s departure announcement, without a timetable, comes as late night is about to experience its biggest overhaul since the year he arrived. Desus & Mero ended when the hosts decided they wanted to work separately. Full Frontal ended when TBS continued its process of exiting the scripted comedy space. James Corden, who started on The Late Late Show in 2015 as well, said in April that he was leaving in mid-2023. I’d speculated that Noah might be a good replacement for Corden, but while The Late Late Show was an obvious promotion for Craig Kilborn 24 years ago, today it would be a lateral move or possibly a demotion.

Whatever late night looks like next fall, it will be very different, and I’ve already written a column expressing my concern that the representational progress made in shifting the template from “white guys named James” to our current day is now looking precarious. Noah joining Bee, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero in seeking other opportunities just makes the spotlight brighter.

As was the case when Stewart’s exit went public, The Daily Show is packed with potential successors. Roy Wood Jr. would be easy. He’s smart and hilarious and capable of being angry with a welcoming smile. Would he want the job? Is he what Comedy Central will be looking for? Dunno. The failure of Hasan Minhaj’s Netflix show was Netflix’s fault, not his, and maybe that show didn’t last so long that he’d be burnt out. Would he want the job? Dunno. Would Samantha Bee want it if they offered her the big chair or, after 218 episodes of Full Frontal, is she satiated? Dunno.

These are all questions for a different day. We don’t know when The Daily Show With Trevor Noah is going to end — only that it’s going to end. So for now, let’s just leave it at this: Noah took a no-win job and he proved that The Daily Show With Jon Stewart wasn’t the only way to do The Daily Show. Seven years of commentary-filled episodes in one of the most difficult periods in American history, a pile of Emmy nominations, an extension of a brand that everybody thought would end with Stewart: May we all know such failure.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Babalu

Who gives a ****?

I sure don't. I'm sorry, the guy is a strange dude.

[TMC]

Trevor Noah reportedly blindsided Daily Show staffers

“It’s been wild,” Trevor Noah told his audience after revealing that his “time is up” on hosting The Daily Show.

The news certainly was wildly unexpected.

Deadline understands that Noah told his studio audience of his departure before telling many members of the Comedy Central series’ staff — news that blindsided many.

The Daily Show sources said that it was “imperative” for Noah to share the news with his fans during Thursday’s taping as he wanted them to hear it from him first.

But the fact that Noah told a few hundred strangers, admittedly some die-hard fans but likely including many tourists keen to get a ticket to a show, before he told some members of his production team was hard to take for some.

Noah is thought to have quietly re-upped his deal earlier this year, and he and his team were recently celebrating scoring seven Emmy nominations – the most since he took over from Jon Stewart in 2015.

The comedian evidently is keen to get back on the road, while also trying new things. Noah, an incredibly popular figure on the live stand-up circuit, is performing Friday and Saturday at the Toronto Scotiabank Arena in Canada and has other shows booked in Halifax and Orlando over weekends off from The Daily Show.

He has been ramping up projects at his Day Zero Productions label as well, having recently hired Sanaz Yamin to run it as president, with former Marvel TV exec Devon Quinn hired last year to oversee live-action and animated TV.

Last year, the company said that it had 50 projects in development. Projects in the works have included a feature adaptation of Noah’s book Born a Crime and a reboot of The President’s Analyst, while there was talk of a mockumentary comedy series featuring Noah in the works with Paramount+. His documentary series The Tipping Point is expected to air on MSNBC and Peacock later this year.

It’s unclear how many people knew Noah was planning to make the announcement, but it evidently was a small number. Comedy Central made it clear that there was no timetable for his departure. The rollout of his exit was clearly not as organized as that of James Corden, for instance, who signed a one-year deal to remain on The Late Late Show with a view to a spring 2023 exit.

Noah’s exit, coupled with the coming departure of Corden, the cancellation of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and the seemingly acrimonious split of Desus & Mero, highlights that there are big changes afoot in late-night.

While Jimmy Kimmel recently signed on to host his ABC show for another three years, and Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have long-term contracts at NBC, it’s the biggest set of changes for the talk-show circuit in many years. Keep an eye on Stephen Colbert, it seems, and whether he decides to stick around at The Late Show.

For The Daily Show, the question is who’s next. Noah was a surprise choice for the position, which means his successor also could be a wild card. You would expect at least the next host of either The Daily Show or The Late Late Show to be a woman.

There’s also a deep bench of strong performers in the correspondent ranks: Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan and Roy Wood Jr have all been there some time alongside gonzo reporter Jordan Klepper, who recently told Deadline that he does fancy another desk job at some stage.

On the production side, a new host would be the third for exec producer and showrunner Jen Flanz, who played a key role in the transition between Stewart and Noah and is expected to do the same with any such new table talker.

There’s also the question as to whether The Daily Show remains a linear premiere. The series is one of the few regular, original series left on Comedy Central’s linear schedule, given its parent company’s focus on Paramount+. All of these are yet to be figured out, but you’d bet that Paramount boss Bob Bakish is tasking Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Paramount Media Networks, to make sure that he gets them right.

“What a journey’s it’s been,” Noah said. “It’s been absolutely amazing.”

[Chocolate Moose]

I think he's funny. I've followed his comedy from way back. NOt too excited about his correspondents though.

[TMC]

Trevor Noah's Daily Show exit is viewed as a sign Comedy Central's brand has been "so dismantled, it’s barely in the comedy business at all"

'The Daily Show' host’s shocking departure leaves the brand in an unfunny place, lacking vision for the streaming era under leadership that partners claim is more interested in squeezing margins.

BY LACEY ROSE, LESLEY GOLDBERG
OCTOBER 5, 2022 6:55AM

Finding a new host for The Daily Show wasn’t on anyone’s to-do list at Comedy Central. Not anytime soon, anyway. That changed Sept. 29, as the face of the network’s late night franchise, Trevor Noah, revealed on air that he’d be stepping down after seven years in the role. Until then, executives including Noah’s boss, MTV Entertainment Group CEO Chris McCarthy, who’d had lunch with Noah the previous day, believed he would be staying put at least through the 2023-24 season. After all, he had re-upped his eight-figure deal for two more years at parent company Paramount Global in June. Then, in a stunning twist, Noah announced that he was done.

“We were completely shocked,” says one high-ranking insider, with others there acknowledging they’d watched Noah’s signoff with mouths agape. The South African comedian, who gathered his staff after the show to discuss what he clearly didn’t feel comfortable sharing before, is said to be eager to spend more time on tour and building out his Day Zero production company. “I feel like it’s time,” he told viewers, noting how clarifying the pandemic had been. If all goes as Noah hopes, he’ll be off the show by the year’s end.

To many in Hollywood, it was the latest reminder, albeit a particularly glaring one, that Comedy Central is no longer the comedy force it once was. In fact, plenty argue that the brand, formerly home to seminal hits like Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer and Broad City, has been so dismantled, it’s barely in the comedy business at all. “Comedy Central never even comes up anymore,” says a prominent comedy producer. “It’s like no one takes pitches to them.” A scan of the network’s primetime lineup today consists largely of reruns of old, non-Comedy Central programming. And the company’s all-important streaming service, Paramount+, hasn’t provided viewers a comedy home the way, say, Hulu has for FX.

To be sure, Comedy Central has struggled with talent retention for years, with the first exodus happening around Jon Stewart’s Daily Show departure. At that time, the company was being run by then-Viacom chief Philippe Dauman, who’d famously offered the network and its stars little by way of resources or cross-company opportunities. Still, the late 2019 ousting of Comedy Central president Kent Alterman, who’d made do on a strong reputation and long-standing relationships in the comedy community, is often cited as “the beginning of the end” for Comedy Central. His No. 2, Sarah Babineau, and the remainder of their programming team were booted some six months later.

In the nearly three years since, McCarthy, a Wharton MBA who came up through unscripted at Viacom, has ushered Comedy Central out of the live-action, scripted comedy business. As part of the strategy overhaul, he’s also reversed renewals (Tosh.0, Drunk History), off-loaded series (South Side, The Other Two, both to HBO Max) and nixed deals, including one with producers Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello, who went on to create Emmy darling Hacks for HBO Max. “There’s more DNA of Comedy Central on HBO Max than on Paramount+, which is crazy,” notes a comedy producer.

By all accounts, McCarthy is focused on adult animation instead, with a heavy emphasis on still gestating nostalgia plays like Ren & Stimpy, a Daria spinoff and an animated version of Everybody Hates Chris. (An exec was hired in summer 2020 to run a centralized adult animation unit for the MTV Entertainment Group.) South Park remains a programming priority, and a new animated project from its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is said to be in the works.

Depending on who in town you ask, McCarthy is either “a smart, thoughtful straight shooter” who’s executing a strategy that’s necessary in an increasingly challenged entertainment environment, or an “aloof bean counter” more interested in squeezing margins and pumping out press releases than in cultivating talent or hit shows. At one of his first all-hands meetings at Comedy Central, McCarthy allegedly was asked what his favorite show was, and, according to one employee present, he said he liked watching CNN. “He couldn’t think of one TV show,” offers the still incredulous source.

What’s become clear is that McCarthy isn’t interested in playing the traditional Hollywood game. While he’s said to have forged a good relationship with Noah — though some question how good, if Noah couldn’t trust him with his news over lunch 24 hours before going public with it — he’s spent very little time wooing talent or their representatives. “At least David Zaslav did the tour when he took over,” snipes an agency partner, referring to the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO’s series of get-to-know-you meetings and meals, which preceded a string of cuts and cancellations.

Nevertheless, McCarthy is committed to keeping The Daily Show the keystone of Comedy Central, which is why Noah’s announcement hit as hard as it did. Though the show’s viewership has plummeted in seven seasons from 1.09 million night-of viewers and a 0.44 rating among the 18-49 demographic to 384,000 viewers and an 0.11 rating, it maintains a massive social footprint and, in the first half of 2022 alone, generated nearly $25 million in advertising revenue, per Kantar. According to sources close to production, McCarthy made clear to Noah that the company would be willing to accommodate his schedule so that Noah could pursue other projects and “feel creatively energized.” In fact, over lunch, the two had even discussed the prospect of having his Daily Show correspondents fill in for him in different weeks. Now those same correspondents’ names will come up as possible full-time replacements for Noah.

Though the precise timeline of Noah’s Daily Show departure was still being hammered out at press time, he continues to have plenty of business at parent company Paramount Global, where he has both a deal and a joint venture through his Day Zero productions. There’s a podcast, for instance, and a growing collection of films in development, at least some of which he will now have the time and bandwidth to star in. But on Sept. 30, a day after announcing his Daily Show exit, Noah had moved on. In fact, that night, he stood before a packed audience in Toronto, filming his next hour of comedy. Fittingly, it will be available on Netflix rather than Comedy Central.

[TMC]

Trevor Noah's final Daily Show set for Dec. 8

Trevor Noah’s days at Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” are numbered.

The comedian, who is in his seventh year of hosting the signature program of the Paramount Global network, is set to depart after a final appearance on the program on Dec. 8. The timeline gives Noah a chance to anchor the program as its cast makes its way to Atlanta for a midterm-election special, and to look back at his tenure on the series.

Comedy Central will place the show on hiatus after Noah’s farewell, and plans to bring it back on Jan. 17 as part of what the network called a “reinvention.” Comedy Central did not name a successor for Noah, but is believed to be considering some of the show’s correspondents as part of its deliberations.

Noah, who came out of near anonymity to take over the program from Jon Stewart in 2015, revealed his exit plans to an audience at a late September taping of the program in New York, saying that “I’ve loved hosting this show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges. It’s been one of my greatest joys. I’ve loved trying to figure out how to make people laugh even when the stories are particularly ****** on the worst days.”

In a statement, Noah indicated he looked forward to producing programming across a wide array of venues, something he has been at work on for some time under a broader contract with Comedy Central’s parent company. “Trevor is an incredible talent who has left an indelible mark on The Daily Show and we’re grateful for his creative partnership over the past seven years,” said Chris McCarthy, president & CEO of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios, in a statement.

Noah’s looming exit from the late-night stage is just the latest in a recent series. James Corden plans to leave CBS’ “The Late Late Show” in 2023 and TBS has cancelled programs led by Samantha Bee and Conan O’Brien that once helped to define the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed outlet. Some hosts are walking away from their programs to try a hand at other projects. Some networks, meanwhile, are getting out of the business of wee-hours TV, growing skeptical about the ability to make a profit as the viewers who once stayed up late to watch it migrate to streaming and social-media to watch clips from the shows at times of their own choosing.

[Chocolate Moose]

Being that his contract expires this year, that makes sense

[TMC]

The Daily Show may go with hosting rotation

By Brian Steinberg

Filling Trevor Noah’s seat at “The Daily Show” may not be a task that can be accomplished with a snap of the fingers.

Comedy Central is considering utilizing a rotating array of hosts on “The Daily Show” after the program returns from a hiatus following Trevor Noah’s exit in December, according to three people familiar with the matter. The Paramount Global-backed cable network is mulling a range of options, some of these people suggested, and it is not clear at present whether its plans are finalized. The network has already said it intends to put the show on hiatus after a final Trevor Noah broadcast on December 8, and then plans to bring it back on Jan. 17 as part of what the network called a “reinvention.”

In the late-night arena, succession is rarely easy. Noah’s decision to leave came as a surprise to many producers and executives involved with the program, according to people familiar with the situation, and that in turn means Comedy Central hasn’t had much time to ponder the direction of the show without him.

Comedy Central faced a similar dilemma in 2015, when Jon Stewart announced in February of that year that he intended to step down. Even so, executives had months of advance notice before his final sign off, letting them mull over prospects of the show’s correspondents — who at the time included Samantha Bee — or outsiders (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were among those reported to be considered at the time).

Comedy Central declined to make executives available for comment. In a statement the network has issued in the past, it said “In time, we will turn to the next chapter of ‘The Daily Show,’ and all of our incredible correspondents will be at the top of that list. Until then, we are focused on celebrating Trevor and thanking him for his many contributions.”

Some of the “Daily Show” team of supporting comics are now in the spotlight, with two people familiar with the matter suggesting correspondent Roy Wood Jr. or contributor Jordan Klepper (who once hosted a program after “Daily”) might be considered to succeed Noah. Wood recently jumped to CAA for representation, suggesting he felt he needed a new advocate to move his career to new levels. But the show has other featured performers, including Desi Lydic and Ronny Chieng.

In a different era, TV networks liked to orchestrate succession behind the scenes. These days, some of them are open to testing new candidates out in the open. Fox News Channel, for example, has relied on rotating hosts at several programs after an anchor or co-host has left.

[TMC]

Samantha Bee or Kal Penn could replace Trevor Noah as Comedy Central considers non-Daily Show staffers for hosting job

Trevor Noah’s successor may be someone “Daily Show” viewers haven’t seen on the program in some time — if ever.

Comedy Central, which has already indicated it is considering the show’s current group of faux “correspondents” and contributors as potential candidates to succeed current host Trevor Noah, is also mulling contenders from outside their ranks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Paramount Global network could look for a host well-versed in political comedy, or simply someone who has straddled the divide between Hollywood and Washington. People like Samantha Bee, the former “Daily Show” correspondent who went on to host her own topical-comedy showcase on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS (cancelled just this past July), or Kal Penn, the actor who logged a stint in the Obama administration and hosted a short-lived late-night show on Disney’s Freeform, could have the experience Comedy Central is seeking.

A representative for Bee declined to comment about her potential interest in returning to “Daily,” and Dan Spilo, a manager for Penn, did not respond to a query seeking comment.

Executives at Comedy Central have tread this path in the past. When the network was considering a replacement for Jon Stewart, people involved in the process mulled popular choices such as Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Chris Rock, while keeping a corporate eye on talent already associated with the program. Noah was early in his tenure as a “Daily Show” correspondent when he was awarded the show’s top job.

A single host is not likely to be in place when “Daily” starts a new run without Noah at the helm. His last on-air appearance as the host is expected to take place December 8. After that broadcast, the show will go on hiatus and resume in mid-January as part of what Comedy Central has billed as a “reinvention.” As part of that process, the network is likely to experiment with groups of its current correspondents at the helm, potentially in arrangements of two or three. There has been some speculation that Comedy Central might consider Roy Wood, Jr., one of the current correspondents, or Jordan Klepper, a contributor who once led a post-“Daily” program called “The Opposition.”

Comedy Central declined to make executives available for comment. In a statement the network has issued in the past, it said: “In time, we will turn to the next chapter of ‘The Daily Show,’ and all of our incredible correspondents will be at the top of that list. Until then, we are focused on celebrating Trevor and thanking him for his many contributions.”

To snag the ultimate “Daily Show” job, candidates need to impress an array of executives. Among those said to have influence on the new choice for the program are Ari Pearce, the network’s vice president of talent and development; Jen Flanz, the executive producer of “Daily Show”; and Trevor Rose, the executive vice president of talent and content development for Paramount Global. Nina L. Diaz, a longtime Paramount executive who is the chief creative officer of the company’s entertainment-focused cable networks, and Chris McCarthy, the president and CEO of MTV Entertainment Group, are integrally tied to the decision as well.

Noah surprised viewers and the show’s own staff in late September when he told an in-studio audience he intended to exit the program he inherited from Stewart. “I found myself thinking throughout the time of everything we’ve gone through,” the host said while making his revelation. “The Trump presidency, the pandemic, just the journey, more pandemic and I realize that after the seven years, my time is up.”

His departure draws new scrutiny to TV’s roster of late-night shows, which has begun to shrink. At Warner Bros. Discovery, executives have scuttled late-night shows led by both Bee and Conan O’Brien, and have made no public effort to replace either. Comedy Central once boasted three different programs, led by Stewart, Colbert and Chris Hardwick. Now the cable network is down to just one. Showtime’s “Desus & Mero” recently stopped production. James Corden has already indicated he plans to step down from CBS’ “The Late Late Show” next year, and NBC is no longer in the business of airing comedy programming at 1:30 a.m. after parting ways with Lilly Singh in 2021. To be sure, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert continue their wee-hours antics and Fox News has found traction with a panel show led by Greg Gutfeld that airs on the east coast at 11 p.m.

[TMC]

The Daily Show won't have a new host until fall 2023

After December 8, the series won't return until Leslie Jones kicks off the guest hosting run in mid-January.

[Yong Fang]

Sounds strange but I can't stand The Daily Show because it is so liberal and dumped on Conservatives, but Noah did a pretty good job hosting the program none the less. I think when he first began, people didnt know what to make of this black kid with the funny accent but he was a good performer for the vomitous, horrid liberal blather.

At least Noah was relatable unlike Colbert. I would rather have a cattle prod stuck up where the sun dont shine than watch him for five minutes.

[TMC]

Trevor Noah bids tearful farewell to The Daily Show

Trevor Noah got emotional while thanking fans and paying tribute to Black women during his final taping of 'The Daily Show.'

[TMC]

Trevor Noah seemingly coasted on The Daily Show

Only occasionally did the series fully deliver on its initial promise of using Noah’s outsider’s gaze to satirize America.

By Inkoo Kang

December 10, 2022

Trevor Noah was introduced to Stateside viewers as an outsider—a foreign observer who could see America more clearly than it could see itself. On his first appearance on “The Daily Show,” in late 2014, the program’s host at the time, Jon Stewart, emphasized the South African comedian’s background when presenting him as the series’ newest correspondent. Noah, who already enjoyed a large following outside of the U.S., wielded his origins to critique Western assumptions about his native continent (that it’s “one giant village full of aids, huts, and starving children”) and to deflate American exceptionalism. Later in the segment, he pictured an African mother chiding, “Be grateful for what you have, because there are fat children starving in Mississippi.”

Noah’s first two Netflix specials, released after he took over as host of “The Daily Show” the following year, fleshed out his stage persona as that of a boundlessly curious globe-trotter. Their most memorable moments add up to a travelogue: meeting Black Americans who romanticize “the motherland” of Africa, trying tacos for the first time, feeling guilty about taking part in “poverty porn” while vacationing in Bali. (Many of his cross-cultural anecdotes are self-deprecating, but, when he tells the story of an incident in Indonesia that involves a snake show gone awry, he is relatably self-righteous about not getting too close to the stage, “because, you see, as a Black person, culturally, I’m trying to not die.”) The journey continues in his most recent special, the relatively anemic “I Wish You Would,” released last month, which builds to a story about the time he “Trudeau’d”—i.e., embarrassed himself by displaying an over-eagerness to embrace the trappings of a culture not his own, à la the Canadian Prime Minister—while ordering food at an Indian restaurant in Scotland.

Noah concluded his seven-year run at “The Daily Show” this week, to the end an awkward fit for a role that, admittedly, was near-impossible to fill. Not that he didn’t succeed in remaking the Comedy Central mainstay closer to his own image: the current iteration of the series is flashier and fleeter than it was in the Stewart years, with an audience that skews younger and more diverse. But, because Noah has set such a high cerebral bar for himself through his specials—as well as with his excellent 2016 memoir, “Born a Crime” (the title refers to his mixed-race parentage, which was illegal under apartheid)—it often felt like he was coasting on “The Daily Show.” This impression was bolstered by the revelation, in a recent Hollywood Reporter profile, that the comedian spent his weekends touring and generally avoiding political commentary in his own standup. During Stewart’s heyday, it was obvious that he poured his intellect into his show. In contrast, Noah’s tenure, which encompassed the Trump Administration and the pandemic quarantine years, often gave the sense of complacency, with a host who seemed much smarter than the material he doled out.

Among Stewart’s many innovations on “The Daily Show” was his unabashed willingness to be himself, or at least a version of himself. His “fake news,” as the program once billed itself, before Trump’s appropriation of the phrase, was delivered by a fake newsman with no need for the pretense of a view-from-nowhere objectivity. On our screens, Stewart was a regular guy from New Jersey, as well as a political junkie who couldn’t believe that news professionals were taking politicians and their claims—including those that led to the Iraq War—at face value. Stewart took things personally. His late-night successors, including his former correspondents, emulated that authenticity. John Oliver has always been the first to mock his own pasty Englishness, Samantha Bee got angry on behalf of women, and Hasan Minhaj fearlessly tackled global topics considered niche by mainstream American audiences, such as Indian politics and Saudi Arabia’s human-rights abuses.You can easily believe that Seth Meyers, too, as a former “Saturday Night Live” head writer and a host of the topical “Weekend Update” segment, has an insatiable doomscrolling habit. Even Jimmy Kimmel, who was previously seldom counted among this more ideological cohort, has used his young son’s health crises to plead for a more sensible health-care system.

While political comedians have generally leaned into the intensity and obsessiveness that Stewart cultivated as his calling card, Noah stands apart; his charisma lies in his coolness and detachment. His view is from somewhere, but it’s also decidedly anthropological. As the Times observed, in a tribute, Noah’s worldliness expanded late night’s geographical imagination, but he rarely came off as caring on a gut level—let alone on Stewart’s ulcer level—about the blow-by-blow of American horse-race politics. Only occasionally did he fully deliver on that initial promise of using his outsider’s gaze to illuminate (or more sharply satirize) America, as when he compared Trump, in a celebrated early viral hit, to an African dictator.

Some will say Noah’s tenure simply wasn’t very funny. As a viewer who has tuned in to the vast majority of his episodes, owing to the fact that the “The Daily Show” has been a fixture pretty much all of my adult life, I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. But the larger letdown may be that his “Daily Show” persona never fully solidified into one that inspired a sense of connection. His façade seemed too often like a crowd-pleasing pastiche; jokes about Things African Moms Say jostled with made-up remembrances of a generic college experience that pandered to audience members who seemed all too eager to see themselves in Noah. One of his most reliable, and most irksome, phrases was “on the other hand”: he’d assert something, then in the next breath champion the opposite stance with equal fluidity. The both-sides-ism could come across as humble and nuanced; just as often, it suggested indifference, a lack of investment in arriving at a truly considered conclusion.

Every individual contains multitudes. But because Noah’s biography has come to comprise a greater part of his public persona than those of his peers, and because we’ve encountered distillations of his comedic voice through his specials, the gap between what he offered on “The Daily Show” and what he’s capable of was ever distracting. (That might be the main reason, aside from the finitude of days in a week, that his fellow-hosts appear not to have simultaneously pursued brand-honing standup careers.) Stewart treated “The Daily Show” like a calling; Noah just seemed like he was there to do a job.

Meanwhile, “The Daily Show” ’s tropes—sitting behind a desk, flitting through the day’s headlines—provided only a fitful showcase for Noah’s most exceptional gifts as a comedian, such as his physicality and his extraordinary ear for accents and impressions. (He speaks seven languages, and in “Afraid of the Dark,” his Netflix début, he runs through at least ten accents.) Noah seemed to reserve his unguarded moments for online-only “Between the Scenes” clips, in which he spoke off the cuff about personal experiences and took questions from the studio audience on the debates of the day. After Queen Elizabeth’s death, for example, he addressed the lack of mourning among many in Britain’s former Empire: “You can’t expect people to show respect for something that never respected them.” In these snippets of candor, he was thoughtful and authoritative, projecting the intellectual credibility that often eluded his scripted jokes.

A succession of celebrity guests, along with the series’ correspondents, will host “The Daily Show” when it returns in the new year. (If any of the latter emerge as a permanent replacement, it’s likely to be Roy Wood, Jr.—a Noah hire and the correspondent with the most multifaceted talent and appeal.) Whoever ultimately gets the job won’t have shoes as big to fill as Noah did when Stewart left, but the task is formidable nonetheless. The series’ influence has rendered it inessential; even Stewart struggles to get ratings or buzz for his new Apple TV+ series, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” in an oversaturated field where TV hosts not only have to contend with one another but with clever takes on social media, which are posted hours before late-night comedy shows make it to air. Relatability is a high-wire act to maintain—just ask Ellen DeGeneres or James Corden—but some kind of authenticity will remain necessary for any political comedian who wants to resonate with their audience. These days, viewers always want to know where you’re coming from.