After Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress that states should be cautious about reopening before the coronavirus pandemic had sufficiently subsided, Trevor Noah paraphrased his words with an apt sports analogy. “Basically, what Dr. Fauci is saying is that we need to think of corona like a sports injury,” the Daily Show host explained. “Yes, you want to get back on the field as soon as possible—but if you get back on the field too soon, you could get injured. You could get injured again, and even worse this time, and then what? Then your career is over, huh? And now you’re just a gym teacher telling fifth graders about how you could have gone pro.”
The joke made headlines, helped propel the monologue to more than 1 million views on YouTube. Not that the show’s creative team was necessarily surprised. The long-running late-night series has created plenty of moments like this over the last few months, even as the coronavirus pandemic has forced The Daily Show to adapt the mechanics of its production.
“I remember in those first few days when we were home and we were like, ‘Oh, shit, we’re going to be home for a while. We have to figure out how to make a show,’” Ramin Hedayati, the supervising producer and head of digital content and strategy at The Daily Show, told Vanity Fair in an interview last week. “Trevor initially just did a selfie video with his phone from his couch, and it was stripped down, basic. But I think we realized that this doesn’t need to be super produced right now. Trevor can get his thoughts out. We can get them out to the people on social; people don’t mind the format. They’ll dig it.”
After production on The Daily Show stopped in early March, Noah joined fellow late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel in producing online-only content from his home. By March 23, The Daily Show was once again airing nightly on Comedy Central, making Noah the first late-night host to resume a form of regularly scheduled programming during the pandemic. (Hosts like Colbert, Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon were back on the air by March 30.)
In the weeks since his return, Noah has made headlines by offering to pay the salaries of his furloughed staffers and, like many of his competitors, has used the Daily Show platform to raise money for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Noah is also notable for being the first late-night host to interview such key figures as Dr. Fauci and New York governor Andrew Cuomo. And despite the hurdles of producing late-night television from home, The Daily Show has actually increased its nightly footprint: episodes have grown from 30 to 45 minutes, which gives breathing room to Noah’s interviews and allows for more in-depth discussion than the typical late-night show structure.
“The interviews are maybe a little more serious, a little less jokey than people anticipate late night to be. And I think in this time, people wanted to have those conversations with Trevor,” longtime executive producer and showrunner Jen Flanz told Vanity Fair, before explaining that the show’s talent bookers are actively looking for opportunities to allow Noah to speak with newsmakers rather than just celebrities. “They’re really thinking about who is important to talk to in this time, and who can really bring something to the conversation that we’re not just getting from watching 24-hour news networks—and also not just Trevor hanging out with his friends at home.”
It helps, too, that Noah has a proven track record of connecting with young viewers, which allows public figures like Dr. Fauci the opportunity to directly address people who might not normally pay attention to news media.