‘The Daily Show’s New Host: See Who Could Potentially Take Over After Trevor Noah’s Exit

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Trevor Noah is onto the next chapter. The comedian, 38, confirmed that he’s exiting The Daily Show — a post he took over from Jon Stewart in 2015 — after seven seasons.

“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 the announcement, no final date for Trevor has been announced — nor have plans been confirmed for a new host. As Trevor is the third host after Jon and original host Craig Kilborn, however, it’s expected a fourth will take over the post. Here’s a look at some of the contenders right here.

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, 52, 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, she 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. Now that she’s back on the market, fans are definitely speculating she could finally take the reigns at The Daily Show.

Roy Wood Jr.

Roy Wood Jr. is also a name floating around to potentially take over for Trevor. Roy, 43, 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 The Daily Mail on Oct. 1. 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 be a natural fit.

So far, Comedy Central has remained mum on the issue. “In time, we will turn to the next chapter of The Daily Show and all of our incredible correspondents will be at the top of that list,” the network said to Daily Mail in a statement. “Until then, we are focused on celebrating Trevor and thanking him for his many contributions.”

Another ‘Daily Show’ correspondent

While the other correspondents haven’t been named as front runners, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulce Sloan and Jordan Klepper are all known to audiences based on their semi-regular appearances.