Hasan Minhaj Reportedly Leads 'Daily Show' Host Race

The tryouts had been cut short when the writers' strike began for fairer and livable conditions

Now three months since the Daily Show guest host carousel came to an abrupt stop, it seems the folks at Comedy Central are calling it its end, as they've already assessed top candidates. People familiar with the situation told Variety that comedian and former correspondent Hasan Minhaj is a leading candidate to take over as host from Trevor Noah.

It has been cautioned that Minhaj has not clinched the position, nor is a deal believed to have been finalized, but it's said to be likely to happen. Following Noah's final episode in December, Paramount+'s comprehensive archive of Noah-era episodes were disappeared down to a select few and segment compilations. The Daily Show employed numerous guest hosts when it returned in January, starting with Leslie Jones. Wanda Sykes, D. L. Hughley, Chelsea Handler, and Sarah Silverman served in subsequent weeks. Al Franken, John Leguizamo, Marlon Wayans, Kal Penn would host before Minhaj had his turn, where he deleted his Twitter on air. 

Minhaj's stint was an interesting transition, as he had been a correspondent for the show from 2014 until 2018, and following his week, the current roster of correspondents were scheduled to host. Roy Wood, Jr., Jordan Klepper, and Desi Lydic did, and Dulce Sloan got a day in before the writers strike led to cancellation of turns for Michael Kosta, Ronny Chieng, and Lewis Black, along with former correspondent Michelle Wolf and guests Charlamagne tha God and Desus Nice. The network has opted not to put on reruns during this period.

After leaving, Minhaj hosted Patriot Act on Netflix, which was very Daily Show meets TED Talk. It ran for 6 volumes of 40 total episodes until June 2020. His most recent stand-up special, The King's Jester was released in October 2022. Comedy Central had hoped to come to a decision about a new permanent host as soon as May for the upfronts. Some executives who work with the show wanted to continue the run of guest hosts because they raised ratings, including executive producer Jen Flanz, but even a new permanent host would probably bring the same. It's also been said that the timetable for CBS's @midnight revival replacing The Late Late Show has also shifted due to the strike.

Source: Variety