Comedian Trevor Noah Is Your New Host Of ‘The Daily Show’

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Published

March 30, 2015

With Jon Stewart preparing to vacate his long-occupied chair on Comedy Central‘s flagship news watchdog The Daily Show, attention has begun turning to the speculation over who will step into his place.

Unfortunately for all of us/fortunately for her, current Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams ruled herself out of the gig a while ago, drawing a line through most people’s odds on favourite due to her youth, self-perceived inexperience, and career aspirations that are rightfully about to all be realised tenfold because she’s a goddamned global treasure.

Overnight, Comedy Central lifted the cloche on the next host, and whilst it does come somewhat out of left field, it’s a solid fit and represents another step forward in the network’s diversification.

South African comedian Trevor Noah will be your next host of The Daily Show. The 31 year-old has appeared three times on the show recently as a contributing correspondent, and is a tenured, globally touring stand-up comic with extensive TV experience in his home country.

But beyond that, he’s a calm, intelligent, extremely talented man with a wealth of life experience, having grown up in a mixed racial family during the ugly era of apartheid in South Africa.

The New York Times broke the news, interviewing Noah whilst touring his stand up in Dubai.

“You don’t believe it for the first few hours. You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”

Interestingly, Grantland head-honcho and man of much mouth Bill Simmons took to Twitter to claim that Comedy Central had designs on landing themselves a big fish for the role, stating that the network had approached Louis CK, Amy Poehler, and Amy Schumer for the role, before settling on the younger/relatively lesser known Noah.

Heard Comedy Central pursued 3 big-ass names for Daily Show: Poehler, Louis CK, Schumer. Went 0 for 3. Young/cheap/upside was smart audible.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 30, 2015

PS: I don’t think Poehler or CK was realistic, but had CC caught Schumer a year earlier – very realistic. Now she knows she can make movies.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 30, 2015

Regardless – and as unrealistic as coaxing any of those three into the job as it is – Noah’s the man the network has gone with moving forward, and is a man that comes with Jon Stewart’s personal endorsement.

For a little background, here’s Noah’s first appearance on The Daily Show.

And the trailer for “You Laugh, But It’s True,” a documentary focusing on his stand-up career (which you can watch RIGHT NOW on Netflix).

And just for good measure, here’s a set from an appearance at The Festival Club during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival a couple of years ago.