Savannah Hulsey Pointer, FISM News
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After seven years as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, Trevor Noah made the announcement that he is departing. In the course of his monolog on Thursday, the South African comic informed the live studio audience that “my time is up.”
“I realized after the seven years, my time is up … but in the most beautiful way,” Noah said. “I’ve loved hosting this show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges. It’s been one of my greatest joys. I’ve loved trying to figure out how to make people laugh even when the stories are particularly sh**** on the worst days.”
The host seemed to insinuate that the pandemic made him reevaluate if he wanted to host the well-known show he took over from Job Stewart in 2015, saying that after spending several years primarily in his apartment he came to realize he wanted to spend more time on the road doing shows and traveling.
A special message from Trevor Noah pic.twitter.com/lMM8ll51fu
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 30, 2022
However, questions have arisen if the shakeups seen in comedy television have more to do with politics and less to do with sudden career trajectory changes. According to a report by The Post Millennial, the bottom has fallen out of Noah’s ratings on a show that frequently features left-leaning political rants.
Warner Bros. Discovery network executives have been forced to cancel several of their similar shows, including those hosted by Samantha Bee and Conan O’Brien. Comedy Central, Noah’s network, was once home to three shows — Noah’s (formerly led by Stewart), one by Stephen Colbert, and another by Chris Hardwick. They pared down to one, and now they’re looking for a new host.
James Corden intends to leave “The Late Late Show” on CBS in the coming year, and as Lilly Singh left in 2021, NBC will no longer broadcast comedy at 1:30 am.
Even though they continue to air every weeknight at roughly 11:30 p.m., Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel routinely perform worse in the ratings than “Gutfeld!” on Fox News Channel. The program was the most watched late-night program for the sixth week in a row earlier this month.
While Noah hosts his show on a comedy network, in 2022 “Gutfeld!,” which broadcasts on a news network, averaged over two million nightly viewers compared to only 374,000 for “The Daily Show,” according to Fox News report on the two shows. In total, their disparity equates to a 437% advantage for “Gutfeld!,” which is by far the more conservative show.
According to Variety, Comedy Central made a statement about Noah’s exit, saying, “We are grateful to Trevor for our amazing partnership over the past seven years. With no timetable for his departure, we’re working together on next steps. As we look ahead, we’re excited for the next chapter in the 25+ year history of ‘The Daily Show’ as it continues to redefine culture through sharp and hilarious social commentary, helping audiences make sense of the world around them.”
Fox News contributor Joe Concha told Fox News Digital of Noah’s exit from his show, “This was a profound disaster. That’s not my opinion. It’s all in the numbers in terms of comparing viewership between the Stewart era and Noah era. And since the show was so predictable, it almost never created the viral buzz Stewart’s did.
The Fox contributor went on to joke that once the host officially leaves his network, “Noah will be carried off the field in celebration like Rudy was at Notre Dame as some kind of hosting hero by the usual suspects in media reporting.”