NEW YORK, January 11, 2018 – Comedy Central, the largest global comedy brand and part of Viacom, Inc (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), today announced that Trevor Noah, Executive Producer, Writer and Host, has selected Loyiso Madinga to helm topical segments for the African broadcast of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Inserting local relevance to the global hit, the South African-based correspondent’s segments will air intermittently on Comedy Central across the continent. The first piece, a field report from the African National Congress Elective Conference, will debut in Africa on January 11.
“As wild as Donald Trump is for America, many countries around the world have Trumps of their own and since The Daily Show is in many countries, we thought ‘why not give each country a chance to show off their stable geniuses?,’” said Trevor Noah.
“Trevor’s curious obsession with South Africa aside, this is a great step in the continual globalization of The Daily Show, which has expanded to unprecedented levels since he took over,” said Kent Alterman, President Comedy Central.
“We’re always looking for ways to take global hits and localize them for regions around the world by adding great local talent, like Loyiso,” said Jill Offman, Executive Vice President and Head of Paramount Channel and Comedy Central International. “This is a pilot, so down the road you may see more internationally based correspondents, making The Daily Show a truly global yet local show for regions around the world.”
“I am really excited to create a voice for local satire. What is really great is this places an authentic spotlight on local comedy and presents a reality that combats the stereotypical perception of Africa. Being part of The Daily Show, I get to join the best conversation in the world” said Loyiso Madinga.
Loyiso (@loyisomadinga) is a stand-up comedian from South Africa who has quickly risen to being a celebrated international comic. Loyiso’s career has been on the fast track since his debut in 2012 where he also shared the stage with international acts such as Tom Segura. Since then, he quickly became a regular on local comedian, David Kau’s “Blacks Only” line up. He has also travelled South Africa as part of Trevor Noah’s Nationwild tour and represented his home country at the Montreux Comedy Festival in Switzerland and Busan Comedy Festival in Korea. Loyiso has written and performed on the two-time Emmy finalist satire show, Late Nite News with South African, Loyiso Gola, and also written and performed on the hit local sketch show, Bantu Hour.
Internationally, ratings for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah were up +35% year-over-year for all viewers across 10 measured markets** for calendar year 2017, driven by strong growth in the UK and South Africa. On the domestic front, viewership for The Daily Show was up +15% in 2017 and ratings among the key demo of adults 18-49 were up +9%. In the U.S., The Daily Show ranks as the top late-night talk show among millennial men (18-34) and is the #2 talk show with all millennials, behind only The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Comedy Central’s programming list helped it reach 372 million subscribers in 146 countries worldwide in fiscal 2017, compared with 285 million in fiscal 2016.
Trevor Noah, Steve Bodow, Jen Flanz and Jill Katz are the Executive Producers of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, with Justin Melkmann as Co-Executive Producer. Max Browning, Eric Davies, Pam DePace, Ramin Hedayati and Elise Terrell are Supervising Producers. Zhubin Parang is the Head Writer with Daniel Radosh as Senior Writer. The series is directed by Paul Pennolino. Sarah Babineau is the Executive in Charge of Production for Comedy Central. Kagiso Lediga is the Director of Loyiso’s local segment for Africa.
In the U.S., The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs nightly at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central and is available to stream the following day on thedailyshow.com and the Comedy Central App. The series airs at 21:30 CAT on Comedy Central across Africa. Viewers can follow The Daily Show on Twitter (7.3M followers) and Instagram (1M followers), subscribe to their YouTube channel (2.7M subscribers) and become a fan of The Daily Show on Facebook(7.5M fans). Fans can follow Trevor Noah on Twitter (8.5M followers), Facebook (4.7M fans) and Instagram (2M followers).
Take a look at his stand up below:
https://www.youtube.com/user/loymad87
