Roy Wood Jr. says he's leaving 'The Daily Show' but he doesn't hold a grudge
Roy Wood Jr. says he's leaving 'The Daily Show' but he doesn't hold a grudge
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Comic Roy Wood Jr. says he will not return to his position as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show when the show resumes new episodes later this month, ending a job he first started eight years ago.
The reason: Since he hasn't been offered the job as permanent host of the show, Wood wants some time to figure out his next act.
Wood says he doesn't know if his name is under consideration for the top job and he has already informed Comedy Central of his intention not to return. ("What could they really say?" he adds when asked how the cable channel responded. [They're] not going to give me the job just to keep me.") But if Comedy Central offered him the permanent host job now, the comic says he would still consider it.
The show began presenting a succession of guest hosts starting in January after South African comic Trevor Noah left the job
According to figures provided by Comedy Central in April, Wood had the second-best ratings of the show's first 11 guest hosts, second only to Al Franken and beating Minhaj.
I haven't watched The Daily Show in a long time, so I don't have much of a horse in this race; but I could tell a lot of people were really hopeful that Roy Wood Jr would get the host role.
Hearing about the guest host roster and the entire process definitely is reminiscent of when Jeopardy short changed Levar Burton for the host position. It was later revealed to have been a play by the (former) executive producer to give himself the host position; but by the time Jeopardy got its house in order, Levar Burton had already been given his own show to host.
I think a lot of times studios aren't really as in touch with what people want as they think and they can easily overlook a crowd favorite. I'm hoping that similar to the Levar Burton Jeopardy situation, this will reveal Roy Wood Jr's popularity to allow him his own show as well.
I think this may be different than the Jeopardy situation. I know there's a general sentiment that Burton was the best option - and I felt the same way at the start of the process - but I've read a lot of behind-the-scenes accounts that suggest Burton simply wasn't good at the job. They had to spend hours refilming segments in ways that weren't necessary for other hosts, and the finished product wasn't as good as most of us were imagining.
Obviously the Mike Richards situation was ridiculous, and maybe there was sabotage we don't know about. My own sense is that the hive mind was wrong about Burton for that specific role - and that's not a knock on Burton! - and things concluded well for everyone.
I never kept up too closely with the Jeopardy situation, but my (limited) understanding was that the EP deliberately set Burton up to fail; giving him only one week (instead of the two weeks that other hosts were given) and making his week during the Olympics.
Only having one week instead of two meant that he was only actually filming for a day or two and likely didn't have a chance to really find his footing. And of course, being during the Olympics hurt his ratings.
Now, were those two issues the some cause of all of his problems? Probably not; but it definitely feels like they were never intending to give him the job.
As you said, though, it all worked out in the end anyways; and I'm hoping it all works out for Roy Wood Jr as well.
Personal opinion here, they should keep the rotation for all correspondents. They all shined in their own way (although we barely got to see Dulce because of the strike and Ronny didn't get to host at all, since he was scheduled for mid-June after it had begun).
However, if I had to pick one, after watching them all, I have the slimmest of preferences:
First pick: Desi Lydic. By a slim margin, but still. I enjoyed her as the host and she wasn't afraid to just let it all out (I know there are a bunch of writers, but the hosts were given a fair amount of control to focus on things important to them during their hosting week, especially their last day).
Second pick: difficult one here for a single reason... Jordan Klepper is fantastic and my initial choice, but if he takes on the hosting role, his "Fingers the Pulse" segment will be gone which would be a huge loss (although it would guarantee him a bit of physical safety). I think he's better in the field, even though I really liked him as host.
So, since Jordan is out for that reason, second pick is a very close Roy Wood Jr.
Other than that, I enjoyed Sarah Silverman and Hasan Minhaj, but Silverman really feels like a guest because she doesn't have the same rapport with the correspondents. That could change, but I don't see it working longterm.
I also enjoyed some of the rest, but some just felt... off.
Franken was okay, but the "look, we can be friends" thing with bringing Lindsay Graham on as his first guest wasn't a great look. Leguizamo was surprisingly entertaining as well, but doesn't feel like a permanent thing.
No one else really caught my attention.
It's unfortunate Roy doesn't want to do it unless he gets the permanent gig, but understandable and I can respect his decision, especially if he's not happy there.
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Fans have debated online whether Wood should get the permanent job, particularly following reports earlier this year that former correspondent Hasan Minhaj was a leading candidate to land the position.
The show began presenting a succession of guest hosts starting in January after South African comic Trevor Noah left the job.
Wood seemed to make a strong case for taking over the top job earlier this year, after a successful week guest hosting The Daily Show in early April and an attention-getting set at the White House Correspondents Dinner at the end of that month.
According to figures provided by Comedy Central in April, Wood had the second-best ratings of the show's first 11 guest hosts, second only to Al Franken and beating Minhaj.
Still, Variety broke news in August that Minhaj, who guest hosted the show the week of Feb. 27, was a leading candidate for the job, according to several unnamed sources.
He stresses that he doesn't hold a grudge against Comedy Central, which he credits for working with him on several non-Daily Show projects, including the standup specials, two podcasts, a filmed pilot for a TV series that never aired and three scripts they bought but never produced.
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