‘The Daily Show’s Next Host: Who Is Taking Over After Trevor Noah’s Exit
One year after Trevor Noah took over ‘The Daily Show,’ original host Jon Stewart is making his return. Look back at all the guest hosts!
Trevor Noah decided to go onto the next chapter. The comedian exited The Daily Show — a post he took over from Jon Stewart in 2015 — after seven seasons in December 2022. As a result, a number of guest hosts took over duties, with Leslie Jones becoming the first guest, on January 17, 2023.
“It has been seven years since we started The Daily Show With Trevor Noah,” he said on the Sept. 29, 2022 show, shocking fans. “And one of the overriding feelings I’ve found myself experiencing throughout the night and even today waking up, was a feeling of gratitude…And I want to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years. It’s been wild,” Trevor added, quipping, “My time is up.”
A special message from Trevor Noah pic.twitter.com/lMM8ll51fu
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 30, 2022
Since Trevor’s last show, a slate of celebrity guest hosts took over hosting duties because a permanent replacement was not found. However, it appears the iconic show won’t need to look any further because Jon Stewart has officially returned to the Daily Show as its host an executive producer.
“Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored to have him return to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,” Chris McCarthy, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios boss, said. “In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.”
Here’s a look at the past guest hosts before Jon’s long-awaited return.
Leslie Jones
Leslie Jones was the first guest host to fill in. The Saturday Night Live alum anchored the show from January 17 until January 19, 2023. Leslie is no stranger to TV or even comedic takes on the news. As an SNL cast member, she frequently would join Colin Jost and Michael Che at the “Weekend Update” desk to deliver comedic insights and characters. Other than SNL, which she left in 2019, Leslie has also starred in the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters and released her Netflix comedy special Time Machine in 2020.
Ahead of her stint guest-hosting, Leslie has shared clips previewing her appearance on Instagram. The Daily Show also shared a humorous clip of her naming different politicians, including Lauren Boebert, Mitch McConnell, and Herschel Walker. She opened up about advice she got from Chris Rock before hosting in an interview with The New York Post. “He told me not to be Trevor [Noah] and not to be Jon Stewart, just be myself. I’m Leslie Jones, so it’s gonna be totally different, at least for me. Just like anything else that’s brought to me, it’s an opportunity to come and do something that I haven’t done before,” she said. Before getting behind the desk, Leslie said that the whole show crew was very “helpful” during an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes held hosting duties from January 23 to 26. Wanda is a pro when it comes to comedy! She won an Emmy in 1999 as part of the writing staff for The Chris Rock Show, and she’s been nominated 12 other times, with her most recent nomination coming in 2020 for her appearance on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Wanda has appeared in numerous hit comedy movies and shows, and released a ton of specials, with her most recent being 2019’s Not Normal. She also was one of the hosts of the 2022 Academy Awards.
Prior to the hosting job, Wanda has been a guest on the show five times with her most recent appearance being in 2017. Still, she’s no stranger to the news! She regularly comments on important political and social issues on her Instagram.
D.L. Hughley
D.L. Hughley sat behind the desk from January 30 to February 2. Another comedy veteran, D.L. has had his fair share of experience bringing people the news in a hilarious fashion over his decades-spanning career. He’s made appearances on The Daily Show seven times before his guest-hosting job. Outside of his standup comedy, D.L. has been hosting his radio show since 2009, and he also briefly hosted his own comedic news show D.L. Hughley Breaks The News on CNN in 2009. He’s clearly still up to date on all the major issues and news stories though and regularly shares his takes on the news on his Instagram.
Chelsea Handler
Chelsea Handler guest hosted from February 6 to 9. The stand-up comedian has appeared in a wide variety of shows throughout her lengthy career, but most notably, she hosted her own talk show Chelsea Lately from 2007 to 2014. She also hosted the series Chelsea Does and Chelsea on Netflix from 2016 to 2017. She most recently dropped her new comedy special Revolution in 2022.
Chelsea has appeared on The Daily Show five times before. She teased what she plans to cover during an appearance on The View in January 2023. “I’m definitely going to talk about Elon Musk and George Santos because I’m chopping at the bit,” she said. “I love political news, and I love combining it with pop culture.”
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman served as the host from February 13 to 16. Sarah was the star of her own Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program from 2007 to 2010. She has also won an Emmy award for her 2013 special We Are Miracles.
Sarah has been an outspoken comedian on political issues, and often addresses them on her podcast. She also hosted the political comedy series I Love You, America on Hulu from 2017 until 2018. She wrote that she “can’t wait” to guest host The Daily Show in a post announcing her appearance on Instagram.
Al Franken
Al Franken is the only guest host who has his own share of political experience as an elected official! Al was an original writer for Saturday Night Live, when the comedy show debuted in 1975. He remained with the show as a writer (occasionally appearing in sketches) until 1980, and then returned from 1985 to 1995. After leaving the show, Al continued working in comedy but occasionally wrote books, which joked about political issues. He notably hosted his own political talk show on Air America radio from 2004 to 2007. He’s also made seven appearances on The Daily Show, including two as a senator.
After leaving his radio show, Al ran for election as a U.S. Senator as the Democratic candidate for Minnesota. He won in the 2008 election and served as a senator for nearly a decade. Al’s political career came to an end in 2018, when he was accused of sexual misconduct, including kissing without consent and groping a woman. Al apologized for the interactions, saying that he remembered the incident differently, via CNN. More women came forward, and he subsequently resigned, although he did deny wrongdoing in some cases. Al has since said that he “absolutely” regrets resigning in a 2019 profile for The New Yorker.
Since resigning, Al has made appearances doing standup comedy and even guest-hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! He also hosts his own podcast.
John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo is another comedian who is no stranger to political issues. The Emmy-winning actor and Broadway star has dabbled in both comedy and serious dramas, but he’s also used comedy to help share news and stories about the Latin-American community, often spotlighting important issues (as well as his projects) on Instagram. He’s made five appearances on The Daily Show prior to his guest hosting appearance.
Hasan Minhaj
Hasan Minhaj returned to The Daily Show nearly five years after leaving to guest host. The stand-up comic was a senior correspondent on the show from 2014 to 2018, during which time he also was the guest speaker at the 2017 White House Correspondent’s Dinner. While he may not be a part of the show any longer, Hasan has clearly kept up on political issues, as his two standup specials Homecoming King and The King’s Jester both dabbled in political humor, but he was also the host of the Netflix comedy news show Patriot Act from 2018 until 2020.
When Trevor announced he was leaving, Hasan reflected on his friend’s tenure at the show in an Instagram post. He shared a photo of the two of them sitting at the desk and wrote a heartfelt caption. “You did it your way, and you made The Daily Show your own. We had some amazing times Trevor Noah, and we can’t wait to see what you do next. Thank you for not firing me when I needed health insurance the most!” he wrote.
Kal Penn
Al Franken isn’t the only guest host with some political experience. Kal Penn delivered news on The Daily Show. Kal has been praised for his comedic roles (like the Harold and Kumar films) as well as his dramatic acting skills (like in Smile or The Namesake). Aside from his acting, Kal was also the Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement from 2010 until 2011 (aside from a small absence to work on a Harold and Kumar film), during President Barack Obama’s administration. He was also the co-chair for Obama’s re-election campaign and served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. While his main focus has been acting, he still shows his political involvement and that he still has some connections on his Instagram.
Marlon Wayans
Marlon Wayans is yet another comedy veteran, who has entertained audiences for decades. Prior to the hosting job, he’s made six appearances on The Daily Show, but audiences should be familiar with him for his numerous hit comedies. He got his start on the sketch show In Living Color, but was also a producer for the first two Scary Movie films as well as the hit comedy White Chicks. Marlon has also regularly toured the standup circuit.
Who Could Have Taken Over the Show?
Aside from any of the superstar guest hosts, there are plenty of people with past experience on the show who would make excellent replacements. While Hasan Minhaj is the only former Daily Show correspondent making his return, there are a few others who have been favored to take over.
Samantha Bee
Samantha Bee is known to The Daily Show audience as she appeared as a correspondent on the series alongside Jon Stewart for 12 seasons between 2003 and 2015. The Canadian-born personality was the series’ first-ever non-US contributor, and quickly won viewers over with her quirky politically driven segments.
Due to her long-standing position with the show, Sam was largely considered a frontrunner to take over as host after Jon’s departure in 2015 — which instead went to Trevor. “I was wildly unsurprised,” she said in 2019 to The Daily Beast. “They didn’t ask me or talk to me about it. I mean, literally, no one called or even emailed from the network—at all…It was awful. It was really awful. I mean, eventually they spoke to me, but I want to say it was a full month or six weeks after Jon had announced that he was leaving.”
She admitted, however, that she knew Comedy Central execs didn’t have a strong history of promoting from within. “I was never in contention and I very much knew that. I don’t know that people in the outside world knew how much I was not being considered for the job,” she also said.
In another interview, the Toronto native says management just “didn’t see” her in the same light as Jon. “I think that the management at the time, beyond the Jon [Stewart] level for sure, just didn’t see me that way,” she said to BuzzFeed News back in 2019. “They just wouldn’t have thought of me.”
“They didn’t have a super great track record at the time of looking within their own talent pool and figuring out who to bring forward,” she also said. “I think they’ve probably improved somewhat, in that regard, but at that time they looked outward instead of looking inward. I would say they had blinders on.”
She also insisted that she had no hard feelings about Trevor getting the gig after serving as a special correspondent for six months with just three appearances. “I wouldn’t have wanted to take it over, to be perfectly honest,” Samantha, who studied drama and acting at the post-secondary level, also said. “I actually really prefer the experience of building something where there was nothing before, I think that was 100% the right thing that happened.”
Samantha still came up on top, though: the McGill University alum hosted her own show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS, which debuted in 2016 and wrapped up in 2022.
Roy Wood Jr.
Roy Wood Jr. was also a name floating around to potentially take over for Trevor. Roy is also known to The Daily Show audience, having served as a correspondent on the series since 2015. Outside of his appearances on the show, he’s well known in the stand-up comedy world, appeared in the 2022 film Confess, Fletch, and his podcast.
Reports surfaced that Comedy Central executives want to “meet” with Roy to talk about the potential gig, per Daily Mail. Another source told TMZ, however, that execs “want to meet with him to discuss his future… but he’s NOT been personally told he’s even a candidate to replace Trevor…there’s talk the next host could be a woman.” Roy has yet to break his silence on the topic, but he would have been a natural fit.