When Jon Stewart left the Daily Show in 2015, he averaged 1.3 million viewers per night. After seven years of humiliating failure, Stewart’s hand-picked replacement, some guy named Trevor Noah, is slinking off with an average viewership as of last week of 363,000 viewers.
During his failed reign, I made something of a cottage industry ridiculing Stewart’s pathetic ratings. The corporate media bent over backward to juice the far-left and smugly dishonest Stewart into a national phenomenon when the truth was that less than one percent of Americans tuned in. Jon Stewart was a “phenomenon” in CNN’s eyes only, a useful court jester, but ultimately a nobody who no one really remembers anymore.
And then along came Trevor Noah…
Compared to Noah, Stewart was everything the fake media said he was… Jon Stewart’s ratings had been close to a statically zero. Somehow Noah, whose arrival was treated as though a new pope had been announced, managed to attract an audience of nearly less than zero.
How is it even possible in a country of 330 million, a Trevor Noah, with billions of dollars in free media promotion and the power of a multinational corporation like Paramount Media Networks behind him, attracted only 363,000 viewers?
A test pattern of my butt has earned higher ratings (long story).
I’m sure the far-left entertainment media will blame American racism for Noah’s collapse, even though Bill Cosby, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Oprah Winfrey, Arsenio Hall, and countless other black entertainers have attracted record ratings.
Trevor Noah’s problem was that he has almost no charisma, he isn’t very funny, and his left-wing humor — which is really propaganda with a laugh track — is predictable and therefore dull. Humor emanates from a grain of truth mixed with surprise. Noah surprised no one. At least Jon Stewart had energy and could mug and make faces that emitted funny voices. Noah always looked like he was ready for bed.
“I’ve loved hosting the show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges,” Noah announced into the void that is his audience Thursday. “It’s been one of my greatest joys. I’ve loved trying to make people laugh, even when the stories are particularly [expletive] on the worst days. We’ve laughed together. We’ve cried together. But, after seven years, I feel like it’s time.”
And the world turned to one another and asked, “Who is this?”
Noah blew a magnificent opportunity. Imagine his career trajectory had he shown the moral courage to go after Joe Biden with the same zeal he used against Donald Trump. Not only would he have stood out from the dozen other left-wing late-night losers, but he would have also gained an entirely new audience.
But to sell-outs like Noah, status within the left-wing ecosystem is more important than entertaining the people, truth, popularity, or a shot at immortality.
He would prefer to please and earn affection from an Elizabeth Warren than to make millions of everyday people laugh.
To retain his status, Noah remained compliant, and this cowardly compliance destroyed his art, his show, and any shot he had at a true legacy.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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