(Photo: thedailybeast.com)
NBC News is reporting that South African comic Trevor Noah has made his debut as successor to Jon Stewart as the host of “The Daily Show,” following Stewart’s decision to step-down.
Noah paid tribute to his predecessor by saying:
Noah’s inaugural night as host opened with comedic jokes about current events including Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner and the discovery of water on Mars.
Comedy Central went to great lengths to attract viewers to Noah’s debut. The show was simulcast across several Viacom networks, including MTV, VH1, BET and Nick at Nite.
Critic David Bianculli says Trevor Noah, “Gave viewers plenty of reasons to tune in again.” Bianculli added:
“As I’ve said before, whenever reviewing one of these new late-night shows the morning after, what you get from the opening installment is a broad first impression, an overall sense of the new tone, the new direction and the new host. It’ll take a month or two to get a true idea of what ‘The Daily Show With Trevor Noah’ will become. But right off the bat, we get a clue about what it wants to be. It doesn’t appear that Trevor Noah is as intent on changing ‘The Daily Show’ format wholesale as Jon Stewart was when he took over from Craig Kilborn in 1999. There’s still an emphasis on current events and lots of funny visuals, as in the lead story report on the pope’s visit to the U.S. and his often progressive positions and messages.”
Noah’s home country has lauded his success and thanked him for “epitomizing artistic freedom” and helping to achieve “social cohesion” in South Africa.
Read More at NBC News.
This post was written by Reginald Calhoun, editorial assistant for the Burton Wire. He is a senior Mass Media Arts major at Clark Atlanta University. Follow him on Twitter @IRMarsean.
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