Noah steps into Stewart’s slot, but he doesn’t look like he’s trying to fill his shoes.
When Jon Stewart announced that he was stepping down from his 16-year run as the host of The Daily Show, and seldom-known South African comic Trevor Noah would be the next host, the questions over whether or not he’d be able to pull it off were frequently met with a refrain about how Stewart wasn’t the first host the show had, either, and it survived that transition just fine. That’s true, but it also misses the point—Craig Kilborn’s three-year tenure as the first host of the show was likable enough, but it didn’t make the show a cultural force like Stewart’s time in the chair did. Stewart was in a great position to make The Daily Show his own—while Noah was in a great position to occupy a firm seat in Stewart’s shadow.
