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
Aux News Hasan Minhaj
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.
50 Comments
I notice The A.V. Club didn’t report that Colbert’s contract was extended until 2026.
I’m hoping it’s either him or Kal Penn.
Penn did a fantastic job. He’s my first choice of the guest hosts (with Minhaj and Sarah Silverman probably tied for second).
I always knew my college RA would amount to something!
Silverman was one of my favourites, but I don’t see her taking a job like that full-time.
I wouldn’t be sure – she did have that Netflix show for a while, and I could see her liking the challenge. I did think Wanda Sykes fit that description though – did a very good job as guest host, but I can’t picture her wanting the gig long-term.
There were some good moments with the “correspondents” behind the desk – I don’t think any of them would be a BAD choice. I’m just hoping we get to see the rest of the Dulce Sloan week as well as anyone else that got bumped by the strike. It was interesting watching people rise to the challenge – or not.
She’s by far my least-favorite correspondent, and I couldn’t stand her as host, but that’s partially just a matter of taste. I’m very disappointed, however, that we didn’t see Lewis Black’s scheduled week as host – even if he has no shot of getting the job long-term, I would have loved a few episodes with him behind the desk.
That’s kind of how I view all of the weekly shots. Some of the hosts were good, had the rhythm and pacing down, seemed like they could hold the job regardless of whether it was on Daily or not.Others… not so much. But at least we got to see them try, and have a definitive answer in the “Would they have made a good host?” game.
Yeah, at 74 he had no chance of getting the host job (plus I think he’s best in small doses). But I would have liked to have seen his guest host stint.
I thought Roy Wood was head and shoulders above everyone else.
Desi Lydac was really good. I love her.DEEPLY.
I also really like Desi Lydic but her guest hosting wasn’t great — though would still consider her one of the top 3 who guest hosted (with Roy #1)
I have no problem with Roy winning, he never fails to make me laugh. And its not like he hasn’t put in the time at the show. But I thought Desi was actually really good in her spots.
Honestly, I had high hopes for Wood, and found his week hosting to be a little disappointing. He wasn’t bad, certainly, but I also thought he was kind of unimpressive, especially compared to several of the guest hosts (including Minhaj). I have no reason to think he wouldn’t be able to grow into the job well, but I wouldn’t put him “head and shoulders” above the competition, at minimum.
Minaj is great, and I don’t wish to pit him against Wood (as if there isn’t room for both somewhere), but Wood makes the most sense. But it’s also a fact that these late night shows are fading away. It would be nice to see this generation find a new format that works organically in the new media reality. Something that breaks out of the standard format.
Yeah, I was hoping Colbert would start breaking out of it on Late Night, but he’s stuck to the old formula as well.
I did too, until Desi’s week (or more? can’t remember). She managed to knock Roy from my #1 spot. But in the end if the permanent host is one of those two or Hasan I’ll be fine with the choice.
I like Roy, but Hasan really was the better fit for the anchor spot. He’s got that wry detachment.Roy is better as a correspondent.
Levar Burton, or we riot.
It should be Roy Wood Jr, he’s the best
He was just about my least favourite of the guest hosts. I really liked him on his own show (Patriot Act), but didn’t think he worked on TDS. I know the popular opinion seems to be Roy Wood and I agree with that.
I always thought they should have done something similar to the guest host and have it split. Like Roy wood does half the episodes in a season and Hasan the other half since doing episodes every week 5 days a week sounds like it takes a lot of energy. That way there is no burnout.
Wow the comments and I are not on the same page, he was by far my favorite guest host. I more or less dropped off TDS some time into Noah’s tenure but I did out of curiosity check out the round of guest hosts and Hasan was in my opinion the best. You could tell from his experience with being a correspondent as well as hosting his own show he had the energy for it.
Noah just did nothing for me. I didn’t find him especially funny or insightful and fell away well before he left.
Agreed. To me, that was the best of the guest hosts, though Wood was my number 2.
I agree.It just feels like Minhaj brings the same energy that Stewart used to.
I admittedly didn’t watch all (or even most) of the guest hosts, but I was impressed by Minhaj’s week. It seemed to me like he more than some of the others that I saw, took the format and within that week was able to extend it. I felt like, in that week, we got a sense of how he would adapt The Daily Show to make it his own. Plus, he is a very good interviewer, and there aren’t many of those on TV anymore/right now. Particularly in late night. You’ve got Seth Meyers, and that’s about it. And Meyers is a good interviewer in that he has a natural rapport with his guests. He’s not probing in the way Minhaj is.
Minhaj. Hasan Minhaj. Not “Minaj” (as in Nicki). Come on, this was the single most easily-googleable part of the damn piece. (Especially after the controversy when he pointed out that Jon Stewart had been inadvertently mispronouncing his name the whole time).For fuck’s sake, get a proofreader.
Seriously. Who writes a whole piece about someone and doesn’t even check the spelling of their name?! And my favorite: “… it’s worth pumping the breaks.” How, pray tell, does one PUMP BREAKS???
It may be stupid but it is actually a common term. Many common terms are stupid when you actually think about them.
What do you think ‘breaks’ refers to?
“How, pray tell, does one PUMP BREAKS???”
How does anyone *NOT* know how to pump breaks?
pump the breaks? more like break the pumps amirite?
Not sure if serious, but pre-ABS, if you locked up the brakes, pumping them (repeatedly pressing the pedal) was a way to regain traction.I mean, pedantically, pumping the brakes was more recommended for something with front drum brakes, and once we moved to front disc brakes, threshold braking (letting off the brakes just a little until you found the limits of your tires’ traction) was the preferred method. Something to do with drum brakes being able to cycle quicker, I think.That said, that doesn’t really apply to the idiom “pump the brakes,” which really just means to slow down or stop for a second, which would really just imply a single press of the brake pedal.*edit* just realized you’re calling out “breaks”. Can’t delete. Carry on.
And here I thought how obnoxious he was on Celebrity Jeopardy woulda taken him out of the running
That’s really all I know of him and it made me hate him
I think he’s funny (sometimes) and smart, but after hearing him on a string of podcasts and trying to watch his netflix show I now find him incredibly irritating. Dude seems very insecure but it presents in a really obnoxious way.
I’d watch the hell out of Minhaj behind the desk, Patriot Act was a great and far too short lived show. He’s good for this.Also, article person: his last name is spelled Minhaj, not Minaj.
Daily reminder Al Franken got fuuuucked.Also Hasan is talented. The show still won’t last though.
Anything to keep him away from Jeopardy.
If they actually wanted to correct course and save the show, they would ressurect Colin Quinn.Be irreverant… not preachy.
Good. The fact that Patriot Act was summarily dismissed the way it was – when it would be going gangbusters with everything right now if it were still on the air… or the stream… or whatever – was such a dumb, shitty decision. Be great to see him bring that energy to a bigger platform.
I loved the Patriot Act, but I was a bit disappointed by Minjaj’s week. It had its moments, but he did not hit it out of the park like I expected. He’d still be a great host. Chelsea Handler surprised me the most, although she may have benefitted from low expectations. Silverman, Wood, and Lydic were all great.
“Trevor Noah suddenly left the post last year”He did not “suddenly” leave, he announced it in September and confirmed his departure date in October and then left in December.
His announcement was unexpected, but his leaving was not “sudden”, by any definition of the word.
Brakes….are the part of a car that you pump…. when you want to stop. NOT BREAKS
Brakes….are the part of a car that you pump when you want to stop.NOT BREAKS
It’s pumping the BRAKES, not “breaks.”
I liked Roy Wood Jr. or Desi Lydic better. Minhaj came out looking a little… arrogant for me (I know, maybe I’m wrong). Wood Jr. or Lydic please.
No mention of Minhaj running a toxic workplace at Patriot Act?