as a correspondent for nine years through Trevor Noah’s entire run. He stuck around last year as Comedy Central sifted through more than a dozen guest hosts before recently settling on a temporary arrangement: Monday appearances by standard-bearer Jon Stewart with correspondents like Chieng filling in the rest of the week.But Chieng himself had no genuine interest in being the full-time host. “I didn’t think it was for me,” he said.
“They kept it secret from everybody,” Chieng said. “I was doing a stand-up show in Red Bank, New Jersey, the night the news came out. He lives in Red Bank. I texted him to see if he wanted to jump on the show unannounced. But he never replied to me. OK, he’s too busy. Turns out he was trying to keep it quiet so he didn’t respond because he didn’t want to lie to me.