Hasan Minhaj Leading Candidate to Replace Trevor Noah as ‘Daily Show’ Host: Report

Comedian Hasan Minhaj is the leading candidate to fill the hosting chair on Comedy Central’s Daily Show, according to Variety.

The outlet sources three people familiar with the situation and suggest that the months-long jockeying for the job among several top comedians is close to being resolved.

However, the report says that Minhaj isn’t a shoo-in, according to sources, and no deal has been signed. Yet, Minhaj has been named as the likely replacement for Trevor Noah, who left the show late last year.

If Minhaj does land the job it will be a homecoming of sorts. He was featured as a correspondent on the show from 2014 and 2018 and has expressed interest in returning as the show’s host. His resume also includes a stint on the weekly Netflix show Patriot Act.

“I’m definitely open to the conversation. It’s also a family conversation now. It’s a very different conversation then when I first got hired at the show when I was 29. 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 on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast in May. “It’s an all encompassing, all consuming thing. And other people have to live with the consequences of what I say. And I just want to make sure everybody, if that were to ever come to fruition, ‘hey, are we all on board with this?’”

Attempts to get a comment from a Daily Show spokeswoman, Minhaj through WME that agency that reps him, and his publicist, were unsuccessful, Variety reported.

Minhaj is one of several comics that has filled in as temporary hosts, including Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, Kal Penn and Al Franken. Some of the show’s correspondents have also put time in as guest hosts, including Desi Kydic and Roy Wood.

The Daily Show hasn’t aired during the writer’s strike, with Comedy Central filling the slot with repeats of old comedy series, including The Office and South Park.