- According to The Hollywood Reporter, 38-year-old Hasan Minhaj would take over the role of host of The Daily Show in the fall of 2023
- Trevor Noah had quit in September 2022 after seven years and the producers had tried a rotating set of hosts, with Minhaj emerging as the favorite.
- On September 15, 2023, The New Yorker published an exposé revealing that Minhaj had embellished some of his stories: The Daily Show subsequently retracted.
Comedian Hasan Minhaj’s deal to take over as host of The Daily Show “was all but done by the end of the summer,” according to a report — but was then torpedoed by the September publication of a New Yorker who accused him of embellishing his stories.
The 38-year-old was one of several people who took turns hosting after Trevor Noah stepped down in September 2022, ending seven years in the top spot.
Minhaj, whose Netflix series Patriot Act earned him legions of fans, an Emmy and a Peabody Award, was the top contender to ultimately replace Noah in the summer of 2023. The Hollywood Reporter said Thursday.
But on September 15, 2023, The New Yorker published a deep dive into Minhaj’s stories that formed the basis of his stand-up routine.
Hasan Minhaj can be seen with Trevor Noah, who resigned in September 2022 after seven years. Since then, there has been a rotating cast of hosts, and Minhaj was the favorite until The New Yorker published his expose.
The New Yorker looked into some of Minhaj’s stories and discovered that they were not entirely true
The magazine discovered that he never took his daughter to the hospital after receiving a suspicious white powder in the mail, and made up a story about an FBI infiltrator who came to his mosque in the Sacramento area in 2002. The infiltrator he mentioned was in prison in 2002. , and only started working for the FBI in 2006.
Minhaj was also found to have made up a story about visiting the Saudi embassy in Washington DC and discovering on the way home that Jamal Khashoggi had been murdered that day – Minhaj’s visit was a month before the murder.
And a woman who Minhaj said rejected him from the prom because he was brown-skinned had a very different memory of the events.
Minhaj published a 21-minute video online, saying the New Yorker writer made him sound like “a psychopath” and promising to be “more thoughtful” about combining fiction and nonfiction.
Jon Stewart, host from 1999-2015, now returns to host the show on Mondays
In the months since, however, Minhaj has shown no remorse, telling crowds at his stand-up shows that he considered the scrutiny a badge of honor.
“I’ve done it: I have a very old scandal,” he said, adding, “A sucker scandal.”
Minhaj continued, “I had to go up against one of the most dangerous organizations in the world,” noting that he did not mean the U.S. military or the Israeli military.
“I’m talking about a white woman with a keyboard.”
But The Hollywood Reporter said that, in the eyes of The Daily Show’s producers, Minhaj was now tarnished and unsuitable for the plum role.
They announced this week that Jon Stewart, who hosted the show from 1999-2015, will return on Monday.
The rest of the week continues to be helmed by a rotating cast of guest hosts.