After the Exposé: Hasan Minhaj Could Be Out of the Reckoning to Become Permanent Host of ‘The Daily Show’
- The Indian American comedian, actor, writer, and producer was till recently a leading candidate to replace Trevor Noah who departed last year from the popular late-night TV program.
The recent New Yorker exposé on Hasan Minhaj has reportedly cost him the chance to become the permanent host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” succeeding Trevor Noah. The Indian American comedian, actor, writer, and producer was till recently a leading candidate for the open host role for the show. However, Variety reported today that the channel is “going back to square one in its efforts to find a new host for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning program. “The decision appears to come in the wake of a recent report in The New Yorker in which some of the supposedly autobiographical stories that Minhaj has used in his routines were found to be embellished,” the magazine said.
Since Noah departed the popular late-night TV program in 2022, it has featured a roster of different comics filling in as hosts, including Minhaj, Kal Penn, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Jones, Al Franken, Marlon Wayans and Sarah Silverman, as well as long-time contributors Roy Wood, Jr., Desi Lydic and Jordan Klepper. The show was supposed to name a permanent host this fall, according to CableTV.Com, an online platform, providing cable TV information and news.
A former correspondent for “The Daily Show,” Minhaj, who guest hosted from Feb. 27 to March 2, “brought in an average of 602,000 total viewers, “according to The Wrap. He worked on the show as one of its team of faux “correspondents” between 2014 and 2018. In an interview with Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast in May, Minhaj admitted that he is “definitely open to have a conversation” about hosting the show. It’s a very different conversation than when I first got hired at the show when I was 29,” he said. “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.”
It is not clear what effect the admission will have on his recently announced third tour — “Off With His Head’ — which hits several cities in North America later this month.
The Indian American acknowledged to the New Yorker that he exaggerated some of the incidents he’s included in his latest Netflix special, “The King’s Jester.” In the Sept. 15 article titled “Hasan Minhaj’s Emotional Truths,” author Clare Malone shared several “embellished” stories in “The King’s Jester.” There are anecdotes of an FBI informant who infiltrated his family’s Sacramento-area mosque; his fallout following “Patriot Act” segments on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalism; an incident with his daughter, among others.
He made a name with his unique style of blending autobiographical storytelling and social-justice commentary. He often shared harrowing experiences he’s faced as a South Asian American and a Muslim American, propelling him as a symbol of representation in entertainment. Minhaj “came of age as a practicing Muslim in an Indian family in post-9/11 America,” The New Yorker noted, adding that his Netflix series “Patriot Act” was named for “the defining law of that era.”
Although he admitted to fictionalizing certain aspects of his routine, he told Malone that he stood by his work. “Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” he said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy percent emotional truth—this happened—and then, 30 percent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”
It is not clear what effect the admission will have on his recently announced third tour — “Off With His Head’ — which hits several cities in North America later this month. It marks his return to the tour circuit after “The King’s Jester” which came on the heels of losing his Netflix show “Patriot Act.” The tour marked his return to his “storytelling roots four years after the global success of his Netflix comedy special ‘Homecoming King,’ which garnered rave reviews and won a 2018 Peabody Award,” according to his website. This summer, the comedian tested material for the tour as part of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s reimagined season, the Times Union reported.
Meanwhile, in an August report, The Wrap had named Kal Penn among candidates who could be tapped as a permanent host. The Indian American actor, who had the distinction of snagging an interview with President Biden, hosted from March 13-16. That interview saw “658,000 viewers tune in,” The Wrap said, “before viewership decreased on Tuesday and Wednesday, with 614,000 and 570,000 total viewers tuning in, respectively.” He did receive “a slight boost on Thursday, drawing in 580,000 viewers to finish out the week,” according to the stats put out by the multi-platform media company. “The rotating hosts also benefited the show ratings-wise, as it saw “a 21% boost in ratings from January to mid-April 2023 when compared to the same weeks last year,” the report added.
(Top photo, Hasan Minhaj in “The King’s Jester” at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Clifton Prescod / Netflix}