Jon Stewart left The Daily Show seven years ago, and it’s fair to say that the world looks completely different now. Those seven years have seen enormous strife and plenty of downs (and some ups) for mankind with Trevor Noah presiding as master of ceremonies on the satiric late-night show. And Noah kept things both funny and critical throughout the pandemic, the George Floyd protests, and so many more difficult sources of upheaval. This week (and apparently to the surprise of his staff, along with the Comedy Central audience), Noah announced that he’ll leave the gig where he dealt out the show’s brand of cultural commentary for seven years. What happened?
No immediate answers exist to that question, but one big factor would be that Noah signed a five-year contract in 2017, which means that he didn’t sign a renewal deal. There’s no telling whether this has to do with a personal choice or if ratings had any say in the matter, but Noah did guide people (with scathing humor) through the Trump administration and more. He also declared, “I realized that after the seven years, my time is up.” He then added, “But in the most beautiful way, honestly.” Here’s more:
“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 sh*tty on the worst days.”
From there, Comedy Central issued a statement of gratitude towards Noah while pointing out that there’s “no timetable for his departure.” In other words, they’ve got the luxury of (some) time to figure out who might host next. Perhaps they’ll go Jeopardy! style and choose more than one host? There’s no telling, but Roy Wood, Jr., Desi Lydic, and Ronny Chieng are onboard as contributors, and a social media groundswell is building for Samantha Bee to take the reins. She possibly possesses the bandwidth (due to another recent programming development) to do so. There’s been no definitive word on that subject, and of course, there are plenty of The Daily Show contributors on hand if producers decide to promote from the inside. Or maybe they’ll even swing back to Jordan Klepper. Hopefully, we’ll hear more soon.
(Via Variety & Washington Post)
