Since Jon Stewart announced his retirement from The Daily Show, the Comedy Central news entertainment program he’s hosted since 1999, speculation has been wild with who would replace him. It’s been especially of interest because there was no clear frontrunner. John Oliver, who filled in for Stewart two summers ago to much acclaim, would have been that frontrunner if his own HBO news program, Last Week Tonight, wasn’t becoming a bigger and bigger hit with each passing week.
Stephen Colbert may have been expected to leave his own follow-up Report to return and helm The Daily Show, but David Letterman quashed that possibility when he and CBS chose Colbert as his successor for The Late Show. Colbert’s mainstream talk show will air later this year.
Focus then shifted to the correspondents on The Daily Show, including long-time veterans and real-life married couple Jason Jones and Samantha Bee. Jones will be starring in a new NBC sitcom and Bee will be helming a new talk show on TBS directly competing with The Daily Show. Fellow correspondent Jessica Williams was predicted to host in Hot Tub Time Machine 2, but Williams quickly responded herself that she was too inexperienced for the job.
So, after a weekend plus of rumors, current correspondent Trevor Noah will be replacing Jon Stewart and hosting the venerated show sometime next year. Though Noah is only 31 and has only been on the show since October, he has hosted a nightly talk show before, in his native South Africa. Noah has also been making a name for himself as a stand-up comedian and is currently touring in Dubai. Comedy Central choice in selecting Trevor Noah, a young, talented, up-and-coming South African star, also signals their effort to broaden diversity in all of their programming.