Trevor Noah recalls his "horrible" first year at The Daily Show to Lilly Singh: It was like flying a plane while the plane is flying

Variety

"So my first year was horrible," Noah says in their Variety-hosted conversation. "I will say the first two years were horrible — and it was horrible because I had taken over one of America’s most beloved institutions. And even though Jon Stewart had passed over the reins to me, it was essentially a year of people telling me I shouldn’t be doing the job and I was unworthy of being in that seat. And I continued to believe that. You step into this new role and you’re doing a new job and most of the first year was just trying to stay afloat, just trying not to get canceled and trying to find my footing. And the analogy I use is trying to learn how to fly a plane while the plane is flying. That’s what it felt like every single day." Singh, who is coming off of her first season as host of NBC's A Little Late, responds: "To hear you had a hard time honestly, selfishly, makes me feel a little better. It’s really hard and the analogy of trying to figure out how to fly a plane is absolutely correct....I had anticipated obstacles: Yeah, it will be a lot of work, maybe there will be some scrutiny — but there were so many obstacles I never even thought about, because I just didn’t have the knowledge to know they would be obstacles. Just looking different and being different has been challenging. You’re talking about your skin color too much. You’re talking about your sexuality too much. And it’s really trying to navigate how to be authentically you when people are not used to authentically you. It really is super challenging."