During the recently concluded writers’ strike, many people working on television’s late night shows wished things would return to normal. Roy Wood Jr. was surprised to find that he wasn’t one of them.
Wood, a member of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” fake news correspondent team since 2015, says the strike has made him reflect on his place on the venerable series — and late-night TV in general. He decided to leave despite being seen in some circles as a candidate to take over as presenter on the show, which has been without a permanent presenter since Trevor Noah left at the end of 2022.
“I don’t think we’re going to continue like this late into the night because we know it’s going to go on,” Wood tells Variety. “Budgets are changing, and demographically we’re entering the age of some people who didn’t necessarily always grow up working the night shift. How do you engage these people and get them involved in the art form?” It’s an idea that Wood says he wants to consider and that he wouldn’t be able to tackle if he stayed with the show – especially since The network is in the middle of what has become a lengthy selection extravaganza that includes guests from Sarah Silverman to Marlon Wayans.
“I knew at Comedy Central that picking a host was going to take a lot longer than it took for me to get answers,” Wood says. In the meantime, he wants to consider new ways to reach fans of topical humor, especially as the country moves closer to the 2024 presidential election. Writing a book, exploring ideas for a film, or directing a sitcom are all possibilities he would like to explore, but also comedy possibilities that may include digital extensions or stand-up concepts.
Comedy Central declined to respond to a request seeking comment. In an earlier statement, the network called Wood “a comedic genius and a beloved teammate.” The network is expected to rely on guest hosts and other “Daily Show” correspondents for the remainder of the year before naming a new host in time for the start of 2024. There’s already new speculation: Sarah Silverman and Leslie Jones have each agreed to guest host for a second stint, leading to speculation that the network may want to see more of them behind the Daily desk.
Wood is just the latest late-night star to explore new territory as the venerable format continues to be undermined by new viewing patterns. Johnny Carson dominated early morning television because he had limited competition. Today’s late-night scene — Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, “Daily” and Seth Meyers — has exponentially more. Part of it is them. Fans can watch excerpts from their shows on YouTube or X without having to watch the hosts’ shows after the late local news. This undermined regular viewership and forced the cancellation of the broadcast slot. NBC no longer airs a show at 1:30 a.m. as it did for decades. CBS is expected to replace James Corden’s “Late Late Show” with a comedy-game show hybrid that appears to be less expensive to produce.
Executives at Comedy Central and its parent company Paramount Global had originally hoped to name a new host in time for this year’s recent “upfront” presentations, in which television networks pitch their new programming schedules to advertisers. The recent writers’ strike forced the show — and its contemporaries — to go dark. The network was believed to have identified comedian Hasan Minhaj as its main candidate for the “Daily” job, only to move on to a bigger one after an article in The New Yorker that said Minhaj had embellished some of his autobiographical comedy content to throw out the net.
Wood says he has no idea who has been identified as Trevor Noah’s potential successor. “I have no idea,” he says. But he believes Minhaj has the qualities necessary to succeed in the role. “I don’t think Hasan could never host because of his situation. I don’t necessarily agree with that,” Wood says. “I definitely think there is a place where he can make his intentions clear, but nothing about what Hasan did, none of it has anything to do with the content that he presented in ‘The Patriot Act,'” a show Minhaj made for Netflix. “Can he show up and do the job? I say yes.'”
Wood has an equally interesting background. He knows both comedy and news, just like Daily. One of his first jobs was working as a news reporter for a radio station in Alabama. But he also quickly immersed himself in the stand-up and comedy scene, recording a morning radio program for drivers, eventually gaining national exposure.
A job at Daily is not an easy job. Wood tells some aspirants, “I guarantee you you don’t want to do it because it’s real work, and it’s twice as much work if you’re already rich.”
Most other late-night shows are aimed primarily at entertainment, he says. “Daily” needs to deal with the news, whether it’s bright or, more often, bleak. “Nobody wants to be the show that has to talk about difficult times,” Wood says. “Everyone wants to be the show that counterprograms difficult times.” At “Daily,” he adds, “we’re more like the Marines.” We’re running headfirst into some of that shit.” There’s “Daily” this week goes back into production, Wood has compassion for his former colleagues, who will likely have to deal with the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well as Republican dysfunction in electing a new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“These are not easy topics to analyze and it’s really difficult to make them poignant and funny,” says Wood. “As a presenter you have to do a lot more than the correspondents because you have to have a steady hand.”
Wood believes he could have stayed on the show longer, but he was worried about his place in 2024. “The question of whether you’re going to be a correspondent or not is something you can’t answer until you get the host, and let’s. “Be honest – the host may not want me. I may not fit the host’s sensibilities,” he says. “The idea of waiting for the answer to that question was actually more of the motivation for leaving than the idea of choosing me to host.”
He says he now has time to find ways to reach an audience that enjoys late-night humor, even if they don’t always watch at traditional late-night hours. He and “Daily” colleague Jordan Klepper will host a “town hall”-style show for a live audience in January “where they’ll discuss issues one-on-one with locals about the state of America.” It’s sort of an alternative to stand-up , but it still gets me out into the world and talking to people and interacting.”
Wood believes there needs to be a format that resonates with a younger audience. But it was hard to find. Netflix, Hulu and Apple have tested late-night driving programs with everyone from Chelsea Handler to Jon Stewart, but few have caught on with traditional TV stars. As young viewers get their news and information through outlets other than newspapers and cable TV, he said programming may need to be reconfigured to reflect modern behavior.
And if he has to look elsewhere? Well, says Wood, that’s fine. When it comes to analyzing the state of the world through comedy, he says, “Late night is not the only way to do it.”