How ‘The Daily Show’ Host Search Became Such a Disaster
In this week’s crossover episode between The New Abnormal and The Last Laugh, we explore what the hell is actually happening with the search for a new “Daily Show” host.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Lev/Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
A lot happened in the world of comedy over the past year—and not all of it was good, according to The Daily Beast’s senior entertainment editor and host of The Last Laugh podcast, Matt Wilstein.
In this week’s crossover episode with The New Abnormal, Wilstein breaks down how Hasan Minhaj’s “emotional truths” upended The Daily Show’s seemingly eternal search for a new host (or hosts), the downfall of TikTok-favorite standup Matt Rife, and the emergence of Nate Bargatze as a bona fide star of the industry, complete with a gig hosting Saturday Night Live.
“I was pretty shocked by how [the Hasan Minhaj debacle] went down, both the fact that the story came out and the fact that he apparently had the [Daily Show] job taken away from him because of it,” Wilstein said. “I’m actually pleased to hear that Hasan is talking about what happened on stage, even if I don’t necessarily fully agree with his take on it. But at least he’s addressing it and sort of working through it, as opposed to just pretending like it never happened.”
Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast.
Plus, a conversation with author Raquel Willis about her new book, The Risk It Takes to Bloom, a memoir exploring her experiences as a Black transgender activist from the American South.
“I like to hope that we have moved a bit beyond just this kind of obsession with trans people’s bodies, and the reductive pieces of our gender transitions, and that maybe we're in a time now where we can have some richer discussions about what it's like to be openly trans and in the workplace, what it’s like to be openly Black and trans within various social justice movements that in many ways were not crafted for us,” Willis said.
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
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