Last fall, Roy Wood Jr. took his seven-year-old son with him to clean out his office at “The Daily Show.” Wood had been working at “The Daily Show” since his son was a baby. This had been dad’s stable 9 to 5. But all of that was about to change.
“I took him with me to understand the ending of one thing and the beginning of another thing,” Wood told me during a recent visit to Salon’s New York studio. “That's something I don't think he'll put together until he's way older.”
Wood shocked the world last year when he announced he was leaving “The Daily Show” after eight seasons as a beloved correspondent on the Comedy Central political satire show. To many fans, he was an obvious frontrunner to succeed Trevor Noah as the show's permanent host, but when the network dragged its feet on a decision, Wood decided to make his own move.
“My exit from ‘The Daily Show,’ I never saw as this brave, bold statement as much as it was rooted in fear,” he said.
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At the time, leaving a sure thing like “The Daily Show” seemed like a risk. A year later, the program still lacks a permanent host, and Wood just debuted his own show, “Have I Got News for You,” which airs Saturday nights on CNN and is available to stream on Max. It’s an American version of a long-running UK series. This version features Wood hosting, with guests on two teams, led by fellow comedians Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin, competing in a news quiz game.
Last year, Wood, like everyone else, waited to see who Comedy Central would tap to succeed Noah. The network auditioned a collection of potential hosts. Wood tried out, as did Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, Al Franken, D.L. Hughley, Marlon Waynes, Chelsea Handler, John Leguizamo, Desi Lydic and former correspondent Hasan Minhaj, to name a few. At that time, Jon Stewart, the longtime former host, hadn’t yet returned to the lineup.
"Sometimes, you have to jump and figure it out later."
And when an offer to be the permanent host didn’t come, Wood weighed his options.
“Let's be real about it,” Wood said, explaining his thought process. “A new host could come in and want their own team of correspondents. When a new coach comes in, you get rid of some of the assistant coaches. I don't know if I want to wait for that."
Deciding to leave and do his own thing was about both timing and intention, which Wood explained are key to how he views himself as an entertainer. "Complacency is as dangerous as failure because you could look up and you'll end up in a worse place. You could stay at a job and the job could still fire you," he said.
“Do you want to get kicked out the plane [or do] you want to jump out the plane? Sooner or later you got to leave this plane. I would much rather jump than be kicked.”
So he took the big leap. He carried the power with him out of the door. It didn't matter if he had a plan or not, because that bold move got everyone in the business talking and wondering: What’s next for Roy Wood?
“Sometimes, you have to jump and figure it out later.”
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After leaving “The Daily Show,” Wood went back to a skill he practiced as a teenager while juggling journalism studies at Florida A&M University and toying with a stand-up career: multitasking. He hit the road to perform, sold a memoir and a television show, and filmed a movie with Jonah Hill and Keanu Reeves as well as a forthcoming stand-up special for Hulu. He describes it as “putting five, six pots on the stove and stirring them all a little bit at a time and hopefully one of them hits into something that becomes a bigger meal.”
The 45-year-old comedian is known for his intellectual style of comedy––he pulls from pop culture and current events, dissects the parts we think we understand and then offers new and outlandish interpretations.
“Today, he occupies the space filled by Chris Rock in the 1990s and Dave Chappelle in the early 2000s,” Wesley Lowery wrote in the Washington Post, “A Black comedian who doubles as one of our most thoughtful political commentators.”
For example, in his debut special “Father Figure,” Wood could have easily clowned Trump’s response to Colin Kaepernick taking a knee; however, he chose to use the fuss around the protest to highlight the many ways in which American patriotism never makes it into Black music. He lists songs in which Black artists sing about blocks and neighborhoods, without referencing the towns where these places are located. Wood is a master at the calm delivery — the concerned, resting-uncle-face that screams, "Are you out of your goddamn mind?" as he searches for common sense around a headline.
Wood’s comedic talent came honestly. His father, Roy Wood Sr., was a popular radio and television personality. Wood Sr. provided essential coverage of the Civil Rights movement, hosted “Black’s Views on the News” and wrote and produced the radio documentary series “Footsteps to Democracy." In the early 1970s, he co-founded the National Black Network, one of the first broadcasting outfits to produce stories directly for African Americans. Wood had the joy of listening to his father’s voice on the Black radio stations as a child.
Before joining "The Daily Show," Wood placed third overall on the seventh season of "Last Comic Standing.” While steadily building a loyal fanbase online, he’s made three stand-up specials for Comedy Central––“Imperfect Messenger” (2021), “No One Loves You” (2019) and “Father Figure” (2017). A special for Hulu is currently in the works. Woods’ comedic timing was on full display last year when he hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner to rave reviews.
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Wood was visibly excited when talking to me about his new role at CNN hosting “Have I Got News for You.” He’s a fan of the BBC precursor, and is ready to put his own spin on the news quiz show for U.S. audiences. "It’s canon for them," Wood said, describing the UK version. "The show, as I view it, is a fun, nonsensical way of looking at the news through the lens of a game show."
"How much of the political commentary game is pro wrestling? Everybody talk that trash and then ride home in the same car."
He wants to expose Americans to the dynamic shared by UK comedians and politicians — the two groups can openly take jabs at each other in an effort to entertain, educate and heal. It’s the kind of show that has the potential to make political headlines more accessible to everyday Americans.
Wood also has high hopes of reaching across the aisle. During our interview, he made open callouts to not only New York Mayor Eric Adams, but also Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to come on the show as guests.
As Congress only gets more polarizing, the idea of Republicans and Democrats openly having fun on a show together might sound impossible. But to Wood, the idea is not far-fetched.
Wood looked right at home while covering the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer for CNN. In a sharp navy blazer, he delivered the funny while remaining comedically conservative enough to fit in with his counterparts.
Now that Wood is the part of the CNN team, that balance will become a part of his productions, because those Democrat and Republican personalities and leaders are more than punchlines now. They are his colleagues. “When them cameras ain't on, they are friends, they kick in,” Wood said. “I can't tell you how many Republicans who don't do nothing but trash CNN, was at the CNN Grill eating that food and drinking that free liquor.”
“So, it makes me wonder how much of the political commentary game is pro wrestling? Everybody talk that trash and then ride home in the same car.”
The new gig may require him to make some adjustments, now that he’ll be spending as much time with political commentators as he does with comedians, or maybe more. “The difference between being backstage with comedians versus political commentators is that comedians who do not agree with each other do not hide that they are still friends, and that they still kick it.”
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But he won’t be without fellow comedians. “Have I Got News for You” team captains Black and Ruffin share more than roots in comedy. There is a friendship amongst the group, Ruffin shares. “I'm friends with Roy. I'm friends with Michael,” Ruffin told Salon’s Melanie McFarland earlier this month. “I want to know what they think about this stuff. We are making jokes and we are doing bits, but we're also talking about our actual perspectives.”
She continued, “We will be hungry to hear when something happens, how Roy feels about it. I'm scrolling through my news, and something happens, and I go, 'What is Roy about to say?'”
Ruffin and Black will be tasked with assisting guests to answer questions about different events that occur over the week before the show’s taping on Friday afternoon. The first episode featured writer and actress Robin Thede and journalist Matt Welch as guests. The chemistry amongst the collective was evident, Woods' timing was impeccable, and with the current news cycle featuring Donald Trump's obsession with a debunked story about immigrants eating house pets, the jokes nearly wrote themselves.
In these tough political times, when many of us fear the direction our country is going in, jokes help. It's why we love shows like “The Daily Show” and “Last Week Tonight”—both of which won Emmy Awards this year.
“Have I Got News for You” could become a long-running legacy show, like it is in the UK, but for now, Wood is living in this moment of an initial 10-episode run. Of course, he wants the show to be successful, but “The Daily Show” taught him that there is so much life after what seems permanent.
The beauty of change—that's the main thing Wood has embraced during this process, and more importantly, what he wants to teach to his own son. Just as Wood had him tag along to clean out his “Daily Show” office, his son came to his first day at CNN and helped him start his new chapter.
“Once you understand that change is a norm, then you can become more comfortable in being the executor—the executor of change for yourself in your life,” Wood said, “instead of waiting for somebody to push you out the plane.”
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