Photo of Baratunde Thurston by the very talented Stuart Tracte.
On September 28th, South African comedian Trevor Noah will officially begin the unenviable task of replacing Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show. Noah will have to deliver his own unique spin on fake news in order to distinguish himself from his predecessor, and this week, his Daily Show regime announced a hire that gives us a glimpse at how he will accomplish that goal. Baratunde Thurston, political humorist and former director of digital at The Onion, will be The Daily Show’s head of digital content.
In his new role, Thurston will be tasked with the creation of Daily Show-related content on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. This strategy will be a marked departure from The Daily Show’s approach to digital platforms under Stewart; while episodes were made available on the Comedy Central website, The Daily Show did not have much digital presence beyond that.
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“There’s more to what The Daily Show can make than what people have seen,” said Thurston. “This is a 21-and-a-half-minute show that airs on a box in your house, and it can also be a great experience on these other platforms.”
The Daily Show’s decision to expand its digital output is as much a product of the times as it is a way for Noah to distinguish himself. These days, it is simply bad business to ignore the millions of late-night TV fans who consume all their content online. Stephen Colbert, for example, has embraced YouTube as he prepares to begin his role on The Late Show, and other satirical news programs, such as Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, have delivered exclusive videos for web viewers.
Given Thurston’s platforms of choice (he said he wants “to make things that land on Instagram and Snapchat”), The Daily Show’s digital content could look very different from other late-night programs. It will be interesting to see what sort of stuff Thurston develops–and how those digital updates affect Noah’s popularity.
