New ‘Daily Show’ host won’t mess with format
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When it’s time to replace a late-night host, there are two approaches: Go with a proven name (CBS hiring Stephen Colbert to take over “The Late Show” following David Letterman’s retirement) or bet on a newcomer (CBS picking James Corden for “The Late Late Show” or NBC choosing Conan O’Brien for “Late Night” back in 1993).
Comedy Central took the latter approach when it was time to replace Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” hiring the relatively unknown Trevor Noah, a 31-year-old South African comedian who speaks seven languages. Mr. Noah will become host of “The Daily Show” Sept. 28 under the same executive producers who worked for Mr. Stewart, whose last day as host is Aug. 6.
At an hourlong stand-up performance Tuesday night, Mr. Noah commented on racism and terrorism and demonstrated his own outsider perspective on American culture.
He noted the prominent deaths of several African-Americans at the hands of police and recounted his own experience with a traffic stop and how he was terrified he might be shot for driving while black.
Mr. Noah also told stories of being referred to with the N-word in Lexington, Ky. (a genteel, accented, “charming racism,” he described it), about being profiled while flying back to America from Africa during the Ebola outbreak, and he suggested that rather than castigating racists, efforts should be made at reforming them, especially when racist sentiments emerge during angry outbursts.
“Anger can’t make you racist,” he said. “It just opens the door to let racism out. Racism is like alcoholism; it’s a disease.”
Mr. Noah demonstrated deftness with American accents and sound effects and poked fun at his own upbringing in Soweto.
“Everyone was poor, so it was cool,” he said. “It’s not like anyone could tease you.”
After his stand-up performance Tuesday night, Mr. Noah said he doesn’t intend to change “The Daily Show” format much.
“I think of it rather as an evolution as opposed to a revolution,” he said. “I’m a big fan of ‘The Daily Show,’ so to break it would be blasphemy in my world.”
At a press conference Wednesday, Mr. Noah said “The Daily Show” began in 1996 as a reaction to the then-emerging 24-hour news cycle, but now the news is often generated by online outlets like Gawker and Buzzfeed and distributed via social media sites.
“The biggest challenge is how do we bring all of that together,” he said. “We’re looking at it through a bigger lens as opposed to going after just one source, which was historically Fox News.”
Mr. Noah came under fire within days of being announced as “The Daily Show” host after jokes he made on social media at the expense of Jews and women came to light.
He was critical of the idea that he would be judged on just a few tweets and said he never sets out to offend but that any joke can be deemed offensive. Mr. Noah said he was glad the tweets people had a problem with were from two years ago.
“Twitter changes, social media evolves,” he said. “At one point Twitter was a posting board, a room for jokes, and now it’s largely a negative place. … Over time that changed and I changed with it. That’s progress in my book. I’m glad people had to go back to find those tweets and didn’t have to ask about the tweet I made that day. That’s a sign of moving forward.”
Mr. Noah said he was initially neutral about joining “The Daily Show” in an election year, but that changed when Donald Trump jumped in the race for the Republican nomination.
“When he came in it was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is fun,’” Mr. Noah said. “I hope he stays in [the race], not too long for it to become a problem, but long enough that we get to have fun with it.”
Channel surfing
NBC canceled comedy “Welcome to Sweden” after two seasons. … MTV renewed horror drama “Scream” for a second season. … Amazon picked up the former CBS pilot “Sneaky Pete,” executive produced by Brian Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), about a con man (Giovanni Ribisi) who takes on the identity of his cellmate after he gets out of prison and goes to work as a skip tracer, tracking down other criminals. It will join the pilot “Casanova,” about the infamous 18thcentury playboy (Diego Luna), posting to Amazon Instant Video on Aug. 7. … Last week Syfy’s “Sharknado 3” drew 2.8 million viewers, down from 3.9 million for “Sharknado 2” in 2014, per USA Today.