In the event you’ve been watching The Each day Present on the 2025 TV schedule, you recognize that the present persevering with the format of getting Jon Stewart host the satirical information program on Mondays, after which correspondents Michael Kosta, Desi Lydia, Ronny Chieng or Jordan Klepper internet hosting the remainder of the week’s exhibits. Nonetheless, there was a interval in 2023 when former Each day Present expertise Hasan Minhaj was being lined as much as take over as everlasting host, solely to lose that job within the wake of controversy surrounding his standup materials. Minhaj has as soon as once more opened about in regards to the firing, however this time it’s Roy Wooden Jr.’s feedback about what the solid knew at the moment that actually caught my consideration.
Like Minhaj, Roy Wooden Jr. additionally was once a correspondent on The Each day Present, starting when Trevor Noah took over internet hosting the sequence in September 2015 and leaving in October 2023. He and Minhaj had been a part of a THR roundtable that included fellow comics Seth Meyers, Jamie Foxx, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman, and when requested when he discovered the “comedic potential” about his expertise having the internet hosting job taken away, Minhaj answered:
One of many first jokes that got here to me was once I known as a buddy, and I used to be like, ‘How dangerous is it?’ And he was like, ‘The article is dangerous, however the images are good.’ I used to be like, ‘That’s fucking hilarious.’ It’s additionally very humorous to fail so dangerous that you just deliver again Jon Stewart. That’s objectively humorous.
Hasan Minhaj began out as correspondent on The Each day Present in 2014, the 12 months earlier than Jon Stewart left the primary time. He caught round till 2018, when he departed to host his short-lived Netflix comedy speak present Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, however then got here again to his outdated stomping grounds in early 2023 to visitor host for per week. Then later that 12 months, it was reported he was the frontrunner to change into the everlasting host.
Nonetheless, that September, a New Yorker article was printed claiming that Minhaj had embellished sure tales in his standup acts. So although his deal was supposedly “all however accomplished” by the top of the summer time, the mix of that controversy and the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes sidelining plans to introduce a brand new Each day Present host by the autumn resulted within the deal being scrapped. Roy Wooden Jr. later chimed together with his expertise of studying the information:
Can I additionally say from The Each day Present facet, when that got here out they usually had been like, ‘Yeah, Hasan’s not going to be the host,’ no person would give any particulars and we had been all attempting to determine, ‘Properly, if it’s not going to be Hasan, who’s it going to be? Ought to I keep? Properly, what occurred to Hasan?’ It was simply, ‘We’re going to reopen the search.’ No one might even put into phrases what it was you had been being accused of.
Though Roy Wooden Jr. made his final look on The Each day Present in Might 2023, it wasn’t till the next October that he formally departed. So though the sequence was off the air that summer time and early fall, he and the others engaged on the present had been in communication in regards to the Hasan Minhaj scenario, however couldn’t get a transparent reply on what was precisely occurring. That’s so weird to me, as you’d suppose that of all folks on this planet, the actors, writers and crew on The Each day Present could be made aware about why the shakeup was occurring.
This roundtable wasn’t the primary time Hasan Minhaj has famous how his misfortune paved the best way for Jon Stewart to return to The Each day Present. However this time, he additionally in contrast it to if Seth Meyers had died and the ghost of Johnny Carson was introduced again for Late Night time (although he hosted The Tonight Present). Stewart coming again clearly labored out contemplating he’s persevering with in his present place till December, and perhaps he’ll lengthen his contract once more for a 2026 run.
The Each day Present airs Mondays by way of Thursdays at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central, and episodes could be streamed afterwards with a Paramount+ subscription. Hasn’t Minhaj could be seen subsequent within the 2025 film launch of Tron: Ares, and Roy Wooden Jr. will resume internet hosting CNN’s Have I Acquired Information for You in September.