The Daily Show still doesnt have a host. Why not? ·

11 Jul 2024, 00:00

Comedy Central has been taking its sweet time to fill “The Daily Show” vacancy left by Trevor Noah almost a year ago. But that might say more about the peculiarities of that job in this moment than a lack of qualified candidates.

Until the writers strike, a rotating cast of highly capable guest hosts served as caretakers. But while the show is scheduled to return Monday with comedian Michael Kosta — followed by Desus Nice, Charlamagne tha God, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones and Michelle Wolf in coming weeks — Comedy Central says a permanent host won’t be hired until sometime next year.

Executives have declined to comment on their search or its delay, which comes amid uncertainty about the future of two prominent comedians who were rumored as contenders.

One of them, comedian Hasan Minhaj, is facing questions about the truthfulness of personal stories he has shared in his stand-up act. Another, Roy Wood Jr., announced he was leaving “The Daily Show” after eight years as a “correspondent,” saying that it was time for him to “nurture new ideas” about late-night comedy. In an interview on NPR, Wood added that he would certainly consider the host job if offered.

But “the next question becomes, what does ''The Daily Show’ look like in 2024?” he added. “And what does late night look like in 2024?”

Good questions.

The entire genre that “The Daily Show” popularized now finds itself at a crossroads, with flatlining ratings and struggles to stay relevant in a fractured media landscape.

What was once merely a comedy show riffing on the news became an institution during Jon Stewart’s 16-year tenure, which largely overlapped with the Bush and Obama eras. For some viewers, who saw Stewart as a must-watch voice of reason, it became their primary source of news. During his last year, the show averaged about 1.3 million viewers.

“The show really felt like it was part of the national conversation,” recalled Jena Friedman, a former field producer who worked for “The Daily Show” during Stewart’s final three years.

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Comedy Central launched spinoffs and imitators like “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore” and “The Jim Jefferies Show,” while rival networks poached “Daily Show” alums and gave them their own comic-newsy series — “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” “The Break With Michelle Wolf,” and Minhaj’s “Patriot Act.”

Those shows are all gone now. And the remaining late-night comedy shows are struggling with revenue and ratings amid steep competition from a growing number of streaming and digital diversions. Noah’s average viewership during his last season was 70 percent less than Stewart’s in his final season.

Still, “The Daily Show” remains Comedy Central’s most recognizable and valuable property. Which means, to keep the whole enterprise relevant, “they really need to nail this choice of host,” said Jeff Maurer, a former senior writer on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.”

One former “Daily Show” staffer described the host as “the architect of the show.”

“That’s why they haven’t been able to find the right host yet,” this person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect industry relationships. “That’s why they’re testing everybody. … Everything filters through the lens of the host.”

There was some unconfirmed media buzz this summer that Comedy Central was eyeing Minhaj as a leading candidate. But after a recent New Yorker story found that some autobiographical details in Minhaj’s stand-up act — including those involving real-life people — were embellished or fabricated, executives widened the search, according to a report by Variety.

Minhaj defended his stories to the New Yorker, saying that they contain “emotional truths” and that all of them are “built around a seed of truth.” He also drew a distinction between his stand-up work and “Patriot Act.” His representative declined to comment for this story.

For decades, from the Johnny Carson era and beyond, late-night comedy functioned as sort of a day-ending habit for viewers. But the news-driven comedy shows fed off a different audience desire: viewers who watched to keep up with topical conversations.

While the hosts, going back to Stewart, have traditionally insisted that they shouldn’t be thought of as journalists, their shows often involve rigorous research, some of it conducted by staffs that include former journalists.

Yet ultimately, one late-night talk show writer said, viewers would gravitate to one comic-news host over another because of “a specific feeling” he or she imparted.

And vibes may be more important than ever. Now that Twitter and TikTok stir so much of the conversation, these television shows require even more of a host, this writer added, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. “It used to be that the show made the host relevant, and now I think the host makes the show relevant. It’s a bigger job because you have to cut through more noise.”

The ideal host for the “Daily Show” would be charismatic and funny but also “have enough gravitas and enough knowledge of what’s going on in the world that you want to know about their opinion,” Maurer said. “The right comic for that show is a really unique blend of skills sets. Somebody can be great at one thing or even five things and still not be quite right for that particular show.”

And yet, is this job even still appealing? Most definitely: It’s steady work, pays well and offers a lot of exposure.

But it might not be what a lot of comedians want for their careers right now. “There is a multiplicity of opportunity and vastness now,” said comedy writing veteran Josh Gondelman, former executive producer for Showtime’s “Desus & Mero.”

“You can become a household name based on a following on social media in a way that even eight years ago you couldn’t,” he said. And the explosion of YouTube and TikTok lets some performers “write their own ticket,” he noted, offering more creative freedom and less reliance on traditional media.

Meanwhile, “The Daily Show” is a five-night-a-week, 46-weeks-a-year gig — “truly a grind,” in Maurer’s words, that simply might not attract a massive comedic star.

“That might argue for picking someone young, hungry, less well-known,” Maurer added. That person might not generate a lot of excitement when their name is announced, but it will allow producers to “build the show over the years into something people want to watch.”

Another idea is to keep the rotating cast a permanent feature — which could inject a certain energy into the show but present a chaotic scenario for a “Daily Show” staff accustomed to writing for one host.

But why not experiment? If the mock-news industry is facing turbulence, well, so is the real news industry. And there is opportunity: Arguably there are more comedy fans now than ever before and more ways to reach them.

“Just the fact that you are getting paid to write about the state of late night comedy,” Friedman joked to this writer, “gives me a little hope that people might still care.”

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The Daily Show still doesnt have a host. Why not?

Comedy Central has been taking its sweet time to fill The Daily Show vacancy left by Trevor Noah almost a year ago. But that might say more about the peculiarities of that job in this moment than a lack of qualified candidates.

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