Trevor Noah joined “The Daily Show” as host in 2015, in spite of being a relatively unknown comedian from South Africa. He took over the role Jon Stewart had previously. 

Seven years later, he is well-known and well-loved. The Comedy Central show has many fans. 

The studio audience and at-home viewers were, therefore, shocked and disappointed to hear that Trevor Noah is leaving the show. 

He told the audience he was grateful for the time he was host.

Noah’s reason for leaving the show has not been announced, but notably late-night shows are not as popular as they used to be. The popularity of streaming services may be a factor. 

Noah’s satiric humor about the political events of the day present a lighter-side of every day life and will be missed, but anyone wanting to listen to the comedian can find him on Spotify and podcast apps, as well as sites like YouTube. 

The comedian is not likely to fade into the background, and there’s no reason to think we won’t be seeing more of him, one way or another. 

He said, “After seven years, I feel like it’s time,” he said. “I realized there’s another part of my life I want to carry on exploring.”

Noah and Comedy Central did not say when the star would be leaving the show, but the network expressed their gratitude for Trevor’s role on the show, and indicated that he would be replaced. 

“So many people didn’t believe in us,” he said when he started in 2015. “It was a crazy bet to make. I still think it was a crazy choice — this random African.”

“I wanted to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years,” he said. “It’s been wild. It’s been truly wild.”