Comedian Hasan Minhaj is a leading candidate to host Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" — a role that was left open following the departure of Trevor Noah in December last year.
This is according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke to Variety on the condition of anonymity. But while Minhaj's name has emerged as a likely successor, he is not guaranteed to win the position, and a deal is not believed to have been finalized, the sources said.
Minhaj has appeared Multiple times on "The Daily Show" as one of its team of "correspondents" between 2014 and 2018, Variety noted. He also has hosted a weekly program for Netflix called "Patriot Act."
During an appearance on Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast in May, the comedian admitted that he was open to taking over the reins of the "The Daily Show."
"I'm definitely open to the conversation. It's also a family conversation now. It's a very different conversation than when I first got hired at the show when I was 29. My life is in a very different place. And so that's a bigger life/family convo. It changes a lot of things," he said.
"It's an all-encompassing, all-consuming thing," he continued. "And other people have to live with the consequences of what I say. And I just want to make sure everybody, if that were to ever come to fruition, 'hey, are we all on board with this?'"
Following Noah's departure from "The Daily Show," Comedy Central has been filling the show with a rotating cast of temporary hosts, including Minhaj, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, Kal Penn, and Al Franken. The show's current group of correspondents, including Roy Wood Jr. and Desi Lydic, have also had a turn behind the desk.
While late-night competitors such as NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and CBS' "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" have stayed on the air in repeats during the current Hollywood writers' strike, Comedy Central has not been airing any episodes of "The Daily Show." Instead, the network has been filling its grid with repeats of "South Park" and "The Office," among other comedy series.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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