Comedy Central’s The Daily Show suffered a technical glitch during a live broadcast late Thursday night as the program debuted a Rosie O’Donnell-narrated skit mocking Donald Trump, who had just finished speaking at the Republican National Convention.
Trevor Noah hosted Thursday night’s program live from a Cleveland high school just minutes after Trump wrapped up his 76-minute speech.
After a long segment that featured Noah delivering commentary about Trump’s speech, the host introduced a clip titled, “The Very Very Incredible Deal,” a mockumentary of Trump’s life narrated by the Republican nominee’s longtime nemesis, Rosie O’Donnell.
Midway through the pre-taped clip, the video froze and began looping. The audience’s laughter also looped, appearing to confirm that The Daily Show uses a canned laugh track.
Breitbart News cannot upload the clip for copyright reasons. But the glitch has apparently been edited out of the episode posted to Comedy Central’s website.
Noah was just one of several late-night hosts doing live broadcasts from the Republican National Convention this week. HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher, TBS’ Samantha Bee and CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert all hosted special live programs throughout the week, with varying degrees of success.
Meanwhile, Noah’s predecessor Jon Stewart returned to late-night this week, first appearing on Colbert’s Late Show on CBS in a pre-taped skit on Monday and then delivering a searing 10-minute monologue live on Thursday night in which he mercilessly trashed Fox News pundits and Republican Trump supporters. Stewart’s appearances on the program came as it has suffered through months of low ratings.
The Noah-led Daily Show has struggled to match the solid ratings and critical acclaim that Stewart’s iteration of the show enjoyed for years.
Both Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert failed to earn Emmy nominations this year.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum