Roy Wood Jr. Dishes on Chaotic Exit From Daily Show in Interview With Don Lemon

Roy Wood Jr. announced his departure from The Daily Show late last year, and he opened up to Don Lemon about what really happened — and if he really found out that he was fired on Twitter/X.

Wood was a popular correspondent on The Daily Show beginning in 2015, and after being tapped to host last year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, he thought he was in the running to become the next permanent host. But as he told Don Lemon on his YouTube show, he found out on Twitter/X that there would be no permanent replacement for Trevor Noah and that Jon Stewart would return on a part-time basis. That left Wood wondering what his place there really was:

Lemon: And so why aren’t you there anymore?

Wood: I didn’t feel like the show, when I left — and this is before the Jon Stewart announcement — I didn’t feel like there was a definitive plan for the host search, and it made me fearful.

Lemon: About?

Wood: About where I fit into the future of the show. Because if I don’t fit as host, okay, cool. But then where do I fit in any other regard? And you can’t answer that question until you answer the host question. So now my fear with media in this modern day is that we are disposable as talent. We’re very disposable. One of the most, one of the realest lessons I got, I got two real lessons in media before I got to The Daily Show. One: When I got fired from my morning show in Birmingham — shout out to 95.7, no hard feelings — I found out I got fired on Twitter.

Wood also told Lemon that he wasn’t fired from The Daily Show, he just doubted that he was still in the running as host:

Lemon: Did you say did you ever think that they really were considering you to be the host of The Daily Show?

Wood: I felt like they were. And then I heard the, you know, the Hasan Minhaj rumor that, you know, that he was out. But I felt like at the time, back in the spring when I got to guest host and I did the Correspondents Dinner, that I felt like I was legitimately in the conversation. And I felt that. So much so that on the other side of Hasan now no longer being in the running as it was reported, I didn’t feel in the conversation then what I felt in the spring in terms of, “Oh yeah, we’re considering you.” Because now Hasan’s out and you go, “Well, am I in the mix?” “Well, we’re still looking at different options. We’re still figuring it all out. But we want you back as a correspondent.”

Make no bones about it. They wanted me back as a correspondent. Like this wasn’t no, “get the hell on.” But I kept looking at, all right, well, how long can I be a correspondent? And there’s not a definitive structure around the show? How safe am I? And that was the fear. The fear was, this doesn’t feel safe. Because if you get a new host tomorrow and they chop everybody’s head off because they want their own correspondents, I’m gone.

Watch the video above via Don Lemon on YouTube.