Tuesday night’s Daily Show was set to feature Chris Brown as the guest, according to a schedule posted online last week. Instead, Nick Cannon appeared, with little indication as to why the change was made. Except, uh, we can guess why the change was made.
A report in The Daily Beast earlier this week said that Daily Show staffers were “split” over Brown’s appearance, given that he violently assaulted Rihanna six years ago and spent the remaining time really confirming your impressions of him: Throwing a violent, window-breaking tantrum on Good Morning America in 2011, copping some hit-and-run charges in 2013, throwing a rock through his mother’s car window and getting kicked out of rehab in 2014, and, more recently, in a calmer phase of his life, sending nasty, misogynistic subtweets about the mother of his child (“females” who “use children as meal tickets”) and counseling another ex not to be a “thot.”
However, the DB also reported that Noah planned to use the interview with Brown to ask him some direct questions about domestic violence, telling the staff that was his intention during a Monday meeting. Noah’s ex-stepfather viciously abused and eventually shot his mother, then “hunted” Noah, looking to harm him too. (His mother recovered, and, with her encouragement, Noah moved to the U.S. to pursue his comedy career.)