If you were watching television past primetime last night, there’s a good chance you stumbled upon
Trevor Noah’s debut as host of “ The Daily Show ” — and that’s exactly what Viacom wanted.
The 31-year-old South African comedian’s first night averaged 3.475 million viewers across 12
Viacom channels monitored by Nielsen. This is virtually identical to Jon Stewart’s final night on Aug.
6 (3.471 million), which was his second largest same-night audience ever.
On Comedy Central alone, last night’s premiere averaged 1.086 million viewers, including 561,000
adults 18-49 (0.44 rating). “Daily Show” also drew 558,000 viewers on Nick at Nite; 534,000 on
VH1; 360,000 on TV Land; 299,000 on BET; 293,000 on Spike; 116,000 on MTV; 74,000 on MTV2;
45,000 on CMT, 44,000 on Centric (44,000); and 33,000 on Logo and VH1 Classic.
According to Comedy Central, roughly 7.3 million people watched at least of “Daily Show” on
Monday. The network also pointed out the show’s younger skew, as its average median age across
networks was 41.
Cable congloms have done similar roadblock programming in the past, including Viacom itself last
month for the “MTV Video Music Awards.” The strategy helps bring more attention to an event by
corralling the resources of the disparate channels under its umbrella while at the same time lowering
expectations for viewership on the primary channel.
SEE MORE: Trevor Noah Makes Smooth Transition Into ‘The Daily Show’ Host Role
Of course, Noah will be airing on Comedy Central only going forward, so any comparisons to its
premiere night will be misleading. It will take a while to get a handle on his ratings strength.
Stewart didn’t move above the 1-million viewer mark until 17 months into his run (December 1997),
though his popularity over the years has certainly raised the ratings bar for the program. Prior to its
finale, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” was averaging 1.22 million viewers (and a 0.43 rating in
adults 18-49) for the summer.
Noah’s debut as “Daily Show” host comes at a time of transition in late-night television. David
Letterman exited CBS’ “Late Show” and was replaced by Stephen Colbert, while Jimmy Fallon, Seth
Meyers, James Corden and Larry Wilmore have all been in their posts for two years or less.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/trevor-noah-daily-show-premiere-draws-3-5-million-1201604218/

BBC Entertainment Live: News updates
"No memories of Stewart and his storied reign have been usurped or replaced," wrote The Hollywood
Reporter , "Nor, however, have they been sullied."
Daniel Feinberg added: "The best and most honest thing you can say about Monday's premiere is:
'He didn't break it.' He also didn't try to."
Noah's opening monologue kicked off with a joke about growing up on the dusty streets of South
Africa, where his only two dreams were hosting The Daily Show and having an indoor toilet.
"Now I have both. And I'm quite comfortable with one of them," said Noah.
Paying tribute to Stewart he said: "He was often our voice, our refuge and in many ways our political
dad," before joking, "Now it feels like the family has a new stepdad. And he's black. Which is not
ideal."
Deadline's Jeremy Gerard was not convinced by all of Noah's punchlines though.
"A joke about Whitney Houston was DOA, as was a tired play on Aids versus aides, and still the smile
never left Noah's face even as the words hobbled out and died... Those teeth need more bite," he
said.
But Gawker suggested Stewart fans should stay happy, commenting: "If you liked that Daily Show,
this one has some very good news for you: it's basically the same!"
The website said many of Stewart's writing staff had stayed to help "bridge the gap".

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34389114

trevor

trevor and his mom

Career
Noah had a starring role on the South African soap opera Isidingo in 2002 when he was 18. He then
began hosting his own radio show "Noah's Ark" on Gauteng's leading youth radio station, YFM . Noah
then went on to host an educational program, "Run The Adventure" from 2004–06 on SABC 2 . In
2007 he hosted The Real Goboza, a gossip show on SABC 1 , [19] and Siyadlala , a sports show which
also aired on the SABC. In 2008 Noah co-hosted alongside Pabi Moloi on The Amazing Date (a
dating game-show) and was a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in season 4. In 2009 he hosted the
3rd Annual South Africa Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) and co-hosted alongside Eugene
Khoza on The Axe Sweet Life, a reality competition series. In 2010 Noah hosted the 16th annual
South African Music Awards and also hosted Tonight with Trevor Noah on MNet (in the second
season it moved to DStv 's Mzansi Magic Channel). [20] In 2010, Noah also became a spokesperson
and consumer protection agent for Cell C, South Africa's third largest cellular provider. [21]
Noah dropped his radio show and acting to focus on comedy , and has performed with South African
comedians such as David Kau, Kagiso Lediga, Riaad Moosa , Darren Simpson, Marc Lottering, Barry
Hilton and Nik Rabinowitz, [22] international comedians such as Paul Rodriguez , Carl Barron , Dan Ilic
and Paul Zerdin , and as the opening act for Gabriel Iglesias in November 2007 and Canadian
comedian Russell Peters on his South African tour.
Noah has performed all over South Africa in "The Blacks Only Comedy Show", the "Heavyweight
Comedy Jam", the "Vodacom Campus Comedy Tour", the "Cape Town International Comedy Festival",
the "Jozi Comedy Festival", and "Bafunny Bafunny" (2010). [23][24] His stand-up comedy specials in
South Africa include The Daywalker (2009), Crazy Normal (2011), That's Racist (2012), and It's My
Culture (2013).
He moved to the United States in 2011. [15] On 6 January 2012, Noah became the first South African
stand-up comedian to appear on The Tonight Show and on 17 May 2013, he became the first to
appear on Late Show with David Letterman . [9][25] Noah was the subject of the 2012 documentary
You Laugh But It's True . [26] The same year he starred in the one-man comedy show Trevor Noah:
The Racist [27] which was based on his similarly titled South African special That's Racist . On 12
September, Noah was the Roastmaster in a Comedy Central Roast of South African Afrikaans singer
Steve Hofmeyr . [28] 2013 he performed the comedy special Trevor Noah: African American, now
available on DVD and digital platforms. [29] On 11 October 2013 he was a guest on BBC Two 's
comedy panel show QI . [30] On 29 November 2013 he was a panelist on Channel 4 game show 8 Out
of 10 Cats , [31] and appeared on Sean Lock's team in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown on 12
September 2014.
The Daily Show
Further information: The Daily Show
In December 2014, Noah became a recurring contributor on The Daily Show .[32] In March 2015,
Comedy Central announced that Noah would succeed Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show ; his
tenure began on 28 September 2015.

The guy as a stand up comic is a class apart!

I don't think there's any Naija stand up comic that's worthy enough to clean his shoes on the international circuit.

However, i'm very happy for him and hope that his story serves hopefully as an inspiration to many our stand up comics and practitioners of the entertainment sector.