Former ‘Daily Show’ Correspondent Roy Wood Jr. Mouths ‘Please Hire a Host’ as Trevor Noah Accepts Emmy

January 15, 2024 @ 7:16 PM

Astute Emmy watchers noticed former “Daily Show” correspondent sending a silent message to Comedy Central producers on Monday night: “Please hire a host.”

The show has had rotating hosts since Trevor Noah stepped down in December 2022. Among them was Wood, who quit the show in December 2023 as the search for a permanent host dragged on.

Wood himself retweeted the clip, with the caption, “Chill, fam I was trying to do that in the low.”

Wood had been a correspondent on the comedy news show for eight years, but said, “I can’t come up with what Plan B is while still working with Plan A,” meaning he wasn’t going to wait around to see if he was going to be selected as the full-time host.

For a long time comedian Hasan Minhaj was rumored to be the top candidate for the job. But after the New Yorker’s exposé about the fabrications in his act sidelined the “Patriot Act”host, the search. continues.

In October, Michael Kosta, was the most-watched guest host. Other comedians sitting in for a one-week gig include Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, Kal Penn, Desus Nice, Charlamagne Tha God, Michelle Wolf, Lewis Black and Ronny Chieng, Wanda Sykes, D.L. Hughley, Chelsea Handler, Marlon Wayans, Al Franken and John Leguizamo.

The rotating slate of hosts have boosted ratings for the Comedy Central series, but as Wood suggests, the search has gone on too long.

The 75th Emmys were bumped from September to January due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, so the window of eligibility does extend back to when Noah was still the host. His win marks the first time a Black man has won Outstanding Talk Series in the award show’s 75-year history.

Since leaving “The Daily Show,” Noah has hosted the Grammys three times and which is set to host again in February.