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In February, Jon Stewart announced that he would be leaving The Daily Show at some point this year. It was a shock. Many people believed Jon was very happy at TDS, although he had been pursuing other interests – like directing his first feature film – for a few years. Still, some of us still can’t believe that he’s going to leave us before another presidential election cycle. What the hell, man?!

Anyway, the hunt was on for Jon’s replacement and speculation ran rampant. John Oliver would have been an obvious (and brilliant) replacement, but Oliver left TDS for HBO months ago (and his show is a massive success). Some people thought TDS should get a female host, which would have been awesome. TDS has a deep bench of talent, male and female, and it would have been great to see Jason Jones, Rob Riggle, Samantha Bee or Jessica Williams take over. But no. The new host has been named and it’s a guy we barely know: South African comedian Trevor Noah. Noah is biracial. He’s been featured on TDS before. But he’s still pretty unknown and untested. The NYT spoke to Noah after the announcement:

“You don’t believe it for the first few hours,” Mr. Noah said of learning about his new job. “You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”

The appointment of Mr. Noah, a newcomer to American television, promises to add youthful vitality and international perspective to “The Daily Show.” It puts a nonwhite performer at the head of this flagship Comedy Central franchise, and one who comes with Mr. Stewart’s endorsement.

“I’m thrilled for the show and for Trevor,” Mr. Stewart said in a statement. “He’s a tremendous comic and talent that we’ve loved working with.” Mr. Stewart added that he “may rejoin as a correspondent just to be a part of it!!!”

[From The NYT]

The Comedy Central president said that they saw everyone, male, female, black, white, whatever. And I would guess that some of the correspondents honestly didn’t want the gig. But it just feels like… I don’t know, they pulled this guy’s name out of a hat! We’ll see, Comedy Central. We’ll see.

Here’s Trevor’s first appearance on TDS several months ago:

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Getty, WENN.
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