Is Trevor Noah lead candidate to replace Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’?

Could we finally be getting close to getting a new host for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart“? If nothing else, it at least feels like we have our first real contender for the first time since the search began.

According to Variety, the current frontrunner may very well be Trevor Noah, a South African comic and satirist who has only been with the show since December. He has appeared on both “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Late Show with David Letterman,” and he also had a show of his own back in his home country. In some ways, he has provided a similar role on the show to John Oliver, as he comes from an international heritage and uses that in order to comment on some of America’s absurdity. He is also very adept at handling controversial subject matter.

Ultimately, we would understand if Noah is the hire, even if he is a little less experienced than we would have thought the successor would be. (Noah is only 31 years old.) While he is not a big name by any means and Comedy Central could certainly attract one, he does bring a new point of view to a late-night landscape. There are few African voices on TV period, let along after primetime.

If Noah is the hire, the hope here would be that viewers would watch the show progressively over time and see what he brings to the table, compared to getting someone a little more famous and having them conform to the format. In this case, you would not have to change the format too much.

Last night, “The Daily Show” said goodbye to one rumored contender for the role in Jason Jones. Meanwhile, Samantha Bee has a deal at TBS for a new show, and Oliver recently signed an extension to remain at HBO for years.

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