On May 8, the day before she popped on a Zoom for this conversation, Desi Lydic was wrapping up prep for that evening’s The Daily Show when the 4:30 curse struck again. White smoke was billowing in Vatican City, and now the staff of the Comedy Central institution needed to reshape the first half of the episode around the announcement of an American pope. “We’ll have an entire show written and then some time between 4 and 5 o’clock, something will happen,” says Lydic, who shares the hosting carousel with Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta and Jon Stewart. “Then we have just enough time to scrap it and start from scratch.”
It’s been a very eventful year. Is there an episode or segment you’re most proud of pulling off?
The day after the election was not easy. I was hosting that day. I remember going into that morning meeting just being vulnerable about the way that I was feeling — then hearing everyone else try to find the humor in all of it. Coming in as a correspondent, I always played a character. Hosting, you’re yourself. That’s your point of view. So that day just felt like catharsis with the audience, as depressing as it was.
Desi Lydic, at the Daily Show desk has a 2024 Emmy for outstanding talk series.
Matt Wilson/Comedy Central
Do you have any field work horror stories from when you were a correspondent?
I went to cover some Trump rally in Pennsylvania the first go-round. We travel with security, but, in those days, it may have been a little more lax. So I’m there with cameras, talking to people, but no one knew who I was. Then everyone starts chanting, “Fake news, fake news!” A guy grabbed the mic out of my hand and went, “Get out of here, fake news!” “Well, yeah,” I thought. “We are the original fake news.” But it was so unsettling. We’re now the enemy just by nature of being the media.
A lot has been said about how some of your previous colleagues processed the host search between Trevor Noah and Jon Stewart, but how did you feel during that time?
It was disorienting. But I put a lot of faith in our showrunner, Jen Flanz. She’s the whole reason that place runs the way that it does. I knew that we’d just have to ride it out. And as anxiety-inducing as the whole thing was — “Who’s the host going to be? Are we going to have a host? Are we still going to be on air?” — there were some fun positives that came out of that guest rotation: working with Sarah Silverman, becoming friends with Chelsea Handler, having Marlon Wayans come in.
Who’s a dream guest of yours?
Carol Burnett is my number one, just because she’s the entire reason I wanted to do comedy. My dad showed me The Carol Burnett Show when I was a kid, and I was obsessed with her in Annie. Most little girls want to be Annie or maybe Grace, so elegantly dressed and lovely. I was like, “Who’s this fun drunk lady? I want to be like her.” Carol seemed like she was having a good time.
Let’s end on a résumé outlier. You were on an episode of Two and a Half Men. What was the role?
Usually that show would have the babe of the week, whatever hot girl that Charlie [Sheen] was dating. She’d be in a tight dress or a bikini or whatever. This particular episode, this character was one of the first women to just reject him outright. So I didn’t have a lot to do in that episode. (Laughs.)
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
