Today in moments of zen: Hasan Minhaj might be the front-runner for Daily Show seat

The infotainment stalwart might be heading back to The Daily Show

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  August 2, 2023 | 1:12am
Aux News Hasan Minhaj
Today in moments of zen: Hasan Minhaj might be the front-runner for Daily Show seat
Hasan Minhaj Photo: Jamie McCarthy (Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation)

A decade after Jon Stewart left The Daily Show, the late-night landscape looks largely the same. Trevor Noah suddenly left the post last year, but Stewart’s back on the air on Apple TV+. And when there isn’t a strike, Fallon, Colbert, Meyers, and Oliver are still floating around the news-to-comedy pipeline, coming up with fresh zingers about the former president’s latest indictments. Another person who refuses to leave this very specific, highly coveted space is Hasan Minhaj, who started on The Daily Show in 2014 and hosted his own Daily Show-esque series on Netflix for two years between 2018 and 2020. Now, if Variety is to be believed, Minhaj might be heading back to where it all started.

According to Variety, Minhaj is currently the front-runner for Noah’s vacant chair. It’s an obvious choice considering how successful Minhaj has been in this genre. Not that Comedy Central hasn’t been exploring its options. Before the strike, a string of temporary hosts, including former Daily Show correspondents, filled in for Noah. Minhaj, Leslie Jones, Sarah Silverman, and Roy Wood all had a chance behind the desk. Heck, the network even rolled the dice at putting Al Franken back on television. But when Minhaj hosted the show in February, he told The Wrap that it felt like “homecoming.”

“It really was my comedy undergrad,” he said, forgetting that most people leave undergrad saddled with exorbitant debt and a useless degree in sports medicine. “I owe everything in my career to that show. It was the show that gave me health insurance, it was the show that gave me an opportunity to work with Jewish Yoda Jon Stewart. I got to work with Trevor Noah, who was absolutely incredible, and what he brought to the show was so different, and the thing that I certainly hope for it is I hope I bring something new to the show.”

However, it’s worth pumping the brakes a little. Minhaj has not yet been hired. He is also on strike, along with the rest of Hollywood’s writers and performers. So until studios are ready to return to the negotiating table and pay their people, we can take this all with a grain of salt.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Hasan Minhaj’s last name. We regret the error.

 
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