Turns Out Roy Wood Jr. Could Still Host ‘The Daily Show’ After All, But For Now He’s Getting His ‘Ducks In A Row’

Earlier this month, Roy Wood Jr. shocked The Daily Show fans by announcing he’d be stepping away from the show after eight years. The move came just as the writers’ strike had been resolved, and naturally, the comedian is the first to joke about how that looks.

Wood Jr. has been repeatedly floated as a possible candidate to take over the main hosting gig after Trevor Noah’s departure last year. However, Comedy Central executives have been unable to make a decision and have continued to rely on a rotating slate of guest hosts. At the time of his announcement, Wood Jr. wasn’t shy about the fact that he needs to focus on the next steps for his career because he couldn’t wait around any more.

“I can’t come up with Plan B while still working with Plan A,” the comedian told NPR while making it clear that there’s no bad blood. Just being a correspondent is a heavy workload, and he needs the time to plan his next moves. That said, being the new Daily Show host is still a possibility.

In a new interview with Sherri Shepherd, Wood Jr. told her that the hosting gig “could still happen.” He also went into his decision-making process on walking away, which wasn’t his initial plan.

“Who do you know come off strike and then quit the job” the comedian joked to Shepherd before laying out why he left via The Daily Beast. “As you start looking at the lay of the land of late night and television as a whole, that’s going to be a long process figuring out who is going to be in that chair. I need to have my process. So I’m going to be over here making sure all my ducks are in a row as well.”

Wood Jr. later added a little more comedic flair to the situation.

“It’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to get married’ and then Comedy Central is like, ‘We gonna date around,'” he joked. “Then you go ahead and date around and I’m gonna be over here getting myself together for whoever wants to be with me when the time comes.”