Amy Schumer on Why She Turned Down ‘The Daily Show’

When Jon Stewart announced plans to end his rich tenure as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, the network began an exhaustive search to find his replacement. After all, how does one replace the preeminent political satirist in America, and who would want to carry that burden? In a New York Times Magazine profile of the network that was published over the weekend, it was revealed that Comedy Central had approached Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation vet Amy Poehler to host—apparently the fastest “no” they’d ever received—as well as Chris Rock, who reportedly only wished to do it for one year.

Comedy Central brass eventually settled on Trevor Noah, an up-and-coming stand-up comedian from South Africa, to fill Stewart’s very large shoes.

Well, The Daily Beast can now report that Amy Schumer, who has her own incredibly popular (and brilliant) program Inside Amy Schumer on Comedy Central, was offered The Daily Show chair as well, but after giving it some thought, decided to turn it down.

“Yes,” Schumer told The Daily Beast when asked whether she was offered the job of host of The Daily Show.

“I was so honored to be asked and considered. With Comedy Central, I project so much ‘You’re my parents!’ on the network and the people that run it, so them saying, ‘We believe in you and trust that you can do this,’ I thought, ‘Oh my god, thank you!’”

“And then I thought, ‘Well, I could give everyone I love a job and we could all be together for five years. But picturing being in a building and knowing what I was going to do for five years—I love not knowing. And I’ve never done anything safe or to make money for that reason. So, you know, I said, ‘I can’t start now.’”