In nearly every way, Trevor Noah's inaugural performance last night as the new host of The Daily Show was business as usual. There were over-the-shoulder graphics and segments about current events and correspondents and an interview with a boldfaced name from the world of entertainment or politics or science. There was a self-assured host who wasn't afraid to ad-lib. There was a generous-sounding studio audience who dutifully followed the APPLAUSE prompts. In other words, it was just another episode of The Daily Show.
And that was the most disappointing thing about it.
Noah is clearly at the beginning of his tenure. His timing felt rushed at times; his interview with Kevin Hart was simple and cloying. Those are the things that improve with experience. Same for his weirdly unwavering smile and a few gratuitous "silly" voices. But really, nothing that could have gone wrong did. There was no flop sweat, no dead air, no technical snafus or completely muffed punchlines. (A couple of clunkers, maybe, but that's it.) The newest correspondent, Roy Wood, Jr., had one of the best first appearances in recent memory with his segment on manned flights to Mars.
But Wood was literally the only new thing about the entire episode. From Noah's obligatory "I owe everything to Jon Stewart" speech to the closing Moment of Zen, the episode felt like it had been drafted from Stewart-era blueprints. The show's cleverest bit, in which correspondent Jordan Klepper and Noah conflated the recent departures of John/Jons Boehner and Stewart, hinged on critics' expectations about the regime change—but instead of hinting at the show's new path, it satisfied itself with laughing at the situation. And yeah, flux is funny, and Klepper freaking out about Noah's chances was a nice way to poke fun at the gigabits worth of hot-takes that have seen the light of day since Stewart's departure, but it also felt like a bunt.
Comedy Central understandably wants not only to keep its viewership, but to bolster it—witness the recent hiring of Baratunde Thurston to head up TDS’s online-content efforts. But the network and the show also have a rare opportunity. Eleven o'clock is still wide open: things may fragment a half-hour later, when people can choose between Larry Wilmore, Jimmy Fallon, and Stephen Colbert, but for 30 glorious minutes Trevor Noah's status on your screen and DVR is uncontested. Now is the time to try new things, to revitalize the show's format even more than its 31-year-old host.
As Noah told Rolling Stone last week, "you can't just go off one episode like, 'Oh I know what this is about, I know what this is.' It takes a lot more time. You're building a relationship. So what we're doing is dividing the first week into a four-part miniseries that will set the tone for what we hope the show will be." Last night Noah came to the door with flowers and chocolate, but he was wearing your ex-boyfriend's suit. Hopefully this week he'll start wearing his own clothes.
