Behind the Scenes of Trevor Noah’s Star-Studded ‘Daily Show’ Farewell - Rolling Stone

How bash you accidental goodbye to a late-night show redefined by your presence? Well, if you’re listening to the proposal of Comedy Central executives, Paramount Global boardrooms, and the full Daily Show staff— you don’t. But for Trevor Noah, who stepped down the Daily Show table for the past clip arsenic big connected Thursday night, you accidental goodbye with a enactment — and a convey you.

“One past time,” Noah said, opening the show. “Let’s celebrate.”

Bid farewell by a afloat formed of correspondents and unit and semi-successfully serenaded with the Liverpool favourite “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Noah spent his last amusement urging viewers to worth quality lives and discourse implicit the partisan disagreement — each portion looking backmost astatine a amusement that changed everlastingly nether his leadership.

When Noah announced his departure from the amusement earlier this month, the bombshell uncover sent fans scurrying for reasons down the abrupt egress. Industry insiders said the announcement came arsenic a daze not conscionable to Paramount and Viacom executives, but to the show’s formed and crew, who heard the quality unrecorded alongside the show’s workplace audience. “Part of the crushed I did it that mode is due to the fact that I didn’t privation anybody to beryllium the idiosyncratic who past tells idiosyncratic else, who past tells idiosyncratic else, who past tells idiosyncratic else,” Noah told The Hollywood Reporter. “And this is wherever we make the thing. [The show] is wherever we’re together, our space, and truthful for me, it felt similar the astir earthy mode to archer everybody astatine the aforesaid time.”

Starting successful 2023, portion The Daily Show is hosted by a rotating database of guests, Noah volition embark connected a 28-city North American stand-up tour. But according to Noah, there’s nary combat oregon blowup oregon large large occupation accidental that caused him to leave, thing different than a tendency to bash something, anything, new. This deficiency of plans was capable for correspondents Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulce Sloan, Roy Wood Jr., and Jordan Klepper each to poke gentle amusive astatine during their turns successful the spotlight.

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“You’re leaving a occupation to bash nothing?” Sloan remarked. “Wow, you truly are half-white.”

While the large question connected everyone’s caput is what Noah is doing next, the amusement took a astonishing surface-level look backmost connected Noah’s way from chartless newcomer to beloved (and somewhat divisive) nationalist figure. Rather than diagnostic immoderate of the host’s astir influential videos, determination was a gentle mashup of his favourite tagline, “Get the fuck retired of here, man.” It besides included a cheeky personage sendoff from Oprah, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Nick Offerman, Bill Gates, and erstwhile statesmanlike campaigner Hillary Clinton—a veritable workout successful wherefore we should thatch celebrated radical however to sprout horizontal iPhone videos. But Noah took the praise and the acknowledgment with aplomb, continually redirecting the attraction toward the assemblage and the executives successful the assemblage who archetypal chose him.

“Savor each moment,” helium said successful a reflective moment, proposal helium directed toward a younger mentation of himself. “There are moments successful beingness that mean something. [But] it’s hard to admit successful beingness however each of the maturation comes from the shitty moments… And don’t put successful crypto.”

When Noah was tapped by execs and fixed the blessing of erstwhile big Jon Stewart successful 2015, helium was comparatively chartless successful the satellite of American stand-up drama and had lone been a Daily Show analogous for 3 months earlier stepping successful arsenic host. But Noah’s inexperience with American politics, which galore saw arsenic a weakness, gave the erstwhile big a caller instrumentality during the emergence of campaigner Donald Trump. While aboriginal years would spot Noah criticized for his inclination to “just speech it retired arsenic humans” during immoderate tense governmental situations, the Daily Show big charted the amusement from a planetary perspective, allowing Noah to imbue his drama with an earnest intent to spot the bully successful others. Since then, the South African comedian has accrued the show’s online beingness tenfold, and fought archetypal dips successful ratings to go a staple of millennial primetime television.

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Is Noah’s departure indicative of a large alteration successful late-night television? It’s hard to say. In our existent knowing of the format, hosts indispensable beryllium caller capable to forestall the bid from stagnating but established capable to gully and support viewers watching. And for each occurrence communicative similar Fallon, Colbert, and Stewart, a people Noah present joins, the failures person the imaginable to propulsion comedy’s progression backmost years. That wasn’t the lawsuit with Noah, arsenic Thursday’s guest, comedian Neal Brennan noted. “[You] brought diverseness to precocious night,” helium said, presenting Noah with his *literal* flowers. “You turned The Daily Show into The Breakfast Club.”

It’s casual to ideate a last Daily Show with Noah that was overmuch bigger than the 1 filmed Thursday. There were nary large guests, nary sweeping memorials, and a astonishing deficiency of tears. But what was contiguous astatine each break, each camera reset, each infinitesimal backstage arsenic correspondents hugged and kissed and cooed implicit increasing children, was celebration. There were much thank-you’s than punchlines, and adjacent a infinitesimal wherever Noah pushed everything speech to convey Black women for their enactment and knowledge.

“Who bash you deliberation teaches me?” helium said, mentioning his parent and grandmother. “Unlike everybody else, Black women can’t spend to fuck astir and find out.”

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Trevor Noah said goodbye to his amusement of 7 years with the aerial of a antheral assured successful his prime — and focused connected creating a last bow that centered the friends and household that meant the astir to him.

“It was the craziest travel that I didn’t foretell and didn’t expect,” Noah said to a afloat audience. “It’s been an honor, convey you.”