Hasan Minhaj may be switching to the night shift.
It’s rumored that the former “Patriot Act” star is one of the main candidates to host Comedy Central’s the “Daily Show.”
Sources divulged to Variety recently that the months-long quest to find a suitable player to replace longtime emcee Trevor Noah has almost reached its end.
The South African comedian, 39, departed the late night news show last year and a roundtable of guest hosts have since filled the coveted seat.
According to three unnamed sources, Minhaj, 37, “is not guaranteed to win the position” as a “deal is not believed to have been finalized” yet.
However, the Indian-American comedian’s name “has emerged as a likely successor” to Noah.
Minhaj had appeared on the series a handful of times from 2014 to 2018 and was applauded when he appeared as a guest host on the show for one week back in March following Noah’s departure. He also holds the important distinction of being the last ‘Daily Show’ correspondent ever hired by former host Jon Stewart.
He even divulged his interest of hosting the comedy program this past May, telling Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast: “I’m definitely open to the conversation. It’s also a family conversation now. It’s a very different conversation then 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 noted.
The “The Spy Who Dumped Me” star added: “It’s an all encompassing, all consuming thing. 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?’”
The Post has reached out Minhaj for comment.
The publication also reported that the show’s producers hope to come to a decision by May 2024 — just in time for the annual Upfronts.
Every spring, the television industry’s biggest networks gather to present their fall TV show lineups during their Upfronts presentations — in hopes of securing commercial advertising for their pilots.
But the current Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes may delay those plans.
A slew of hosts have kept Noah’s seat warm since his exit, including Wanda Sykes, Marlon Wayans, Sarah Silverman, Kal Penn, Minhaj and Leslie Jones.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum, 55, expressed her desire to emcee the “Daily Show” earlier this year.
She revealed to People in April: “[The host] definitely should be a black woman.”
“It would be great to have a black woman on late night. It’s time. I think people are ready for that. Now, I’m not s–tting on white women or whatever. I’m just saying,” she pointed out.
Source link
