Bill Simmons Says Comedy Central Whiffed On Three Stars Before Picking Trevor Noah As ‘Daily Show’ Host

Trevor Noah will be a household name in America by the end of the lunch hour today, thanks to Comedy Central’s decision to promote from within and select him to be the new host of The Daily Show, but according to Bill Simmons, the network only chose Noah after striking out on three huge names.

I’d say that all three were unrealistic and the definition of a poor fit due either to their comedic sensibilities or their present career trajectory, but Simmons’ tweet makes one wonder who else was considered for the job. It’s also easy to wonder what a bigger name would have meant for the direction of the show. Does The Daily Show with Louis CK look like Jon Stewart’s version? I can’t imagine that Amy Schumer’s does.

Simmons is 100 percent right that Noah is a younger and cheaper alternative with an upside, but I imagine that the transformation of the show will also be more gradual with him as opposed to the network bringing in someone with a stronger track record (to be fair, Noah isn’t exactly a rookie). Maybe it’s better that way, or maybe it’s not. We can speculate until the end of clocks and clouds, but the bottom line is that Comedy Central is in the Trevor Noah business now, and all other possibilities were, for whatever reason, not the right fit for the network and their most important property.

Source: Twitter

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