Stephen Colbert Backs Roy Wood Jr. & Jessica Williams As ‘The Daily Show’ Host Candidates

EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Colbert joined his old friend Charlamagne tha God to give his thoughts on who should replace Trevor Noah as host of The Daily Show.

The host of CBS’ The Late Show is a guest on this evening’s episode of Hell of A Week with Charlamagne tha God, which he exec produces and airs after The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Thursday nights at 11:30pm.

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After joking that his old friend Jon Stewart “is available”, because he only “does like 10 shows a year over at Apple”, he got serious for a second.

“I like Roy Wood Jr. a lot,” he said.

When members of the audience shouted out that it should be a Black woman, Colbert backed Jessica Williams, who was a correspondent on The Daily Show between 2012 and 2016 and went on to host 2 Dope Queens.

“I don’t know if she wants it, but Jessica Williams, I thought she’d be great,” he said before joking that she’s got all that “Harry Potter cash”.

Williams appeared in Harry Potter sequels Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

He also talked up Amber Ruffin saying that she’d be great at hosting The Daily Show but that she already has a regular gig on Peacock.

Deadline revealed last week, that Comedy Central was considering expanding the number of hosts from one to two or possibly even three with a number of the correspondents, including Wood and Desi Lydic, in line for promotions. The search is still on.

Colbert, who was a correspondent on The Daily Show before hosting his own show The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, joked to Charlamagne that he hadn’t heard Noah was leaving. “As long as [Trevor] is in that chair [Comedy Central] will be fine. They’ve got nothing to worry about as long as Trevor is hosting The Daily Show.

His appearance marks the first time that he has returned to the MTV/Paramount Global building on 1515 Broadway. When asked about his thoughts on the state of Comedy Central, he said that he “hears good things about 11:30pm two nights a week”.

Colbert exec produces both Hell of A Week with Charlamagne tha God and Tooning Out The News, which both air in that slot.

Charlamagne’s weekly show got a rebrand in its second season. In its first season it was known as Tha God’s Honest Truth and it also became more of a panel show in its second run.

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