Trevor Noah is leaving The Daily Show after hosting it for seven years, saying he wants to devote more time to standup comedy.
The 38-year-old comedian, who moved to the US in 2011 and was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, had big shoes to fill when he took over in 2015 after the departure of longtime host Jon Stewart.
It quickly established itself with its own brand, fitting for an era where online influence was often greater than that of cable TV content.
His reign on The Daily Show on Comedy Central required him to delicately cover some pivotal moments in American history, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2021 attacks on the US Capitol .
“I spent two years in my apartment [during Covid]not on the road,” Noah told his studio audience Thursday afternoon. “It’s over, and when I got back out there, I realized there’s another part of my life that I want to continue exploring”.
The Daily Show posted a clip of Noah’s comments on social media.
“We laughed together, we cried together. But after seven years, I feel the time has come,” he said.
Noah ended his remarks by thanking his viewers as his studio audience rose to their feet to applaud him.
Noah, who grilled US politicians and the media at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April, did not mention the exact date of his departure in his remarks on Thursday. It was not known who would succeed him.
The key to addressing current events through a comic lens lies in a comic’s intent, Noah said in a 2016 interview, adding that he learned from his mistakes.
He said of succeeding his legendary predecessor: “I don’t think I’ve ever been ready, but that’s when you have to – you’re not going to be ready.”