GRcade

Moggy wrote:That segment on the Trump products. How is he getting away with lying like that? Klepper looked genuinely exhausted and exasperated by it all.

Moggy wrote:Having Lindsey Graham on makes me miss Jon's impression of him.

Jessica Williams is leaving The Daily Show — exclusive

Thursday’s episode will be her last, Williams reveals in an interview with EW

The youngest correspondent to ever join The Daily Show is about to become the youngest correspondent to ever leave it: After four years with the late-night series, Jessica Williams is moving on to focus on an upcoming project of her own for Comedy Central. This Thursday’s episode will be her last.

“I feel so many emotions,” Williams tells EW in an exclusive interview, which you can read in full below. “I feel like I’m growing up and graduating.”

Daily Show host Trevor Noah was similarly bittersweet about the news. “The sadness I have for Jessica leaving is only eclipsed by the joy I have for her starting her new show,” he said in an email. “If her podcast is anything to go by, it’s going to be an exciting show!”

Like a lot of Daily Show talent, Williams was a relative unknown when she joined the show in January 2012. Her debut quickly changed that: At 22, she was not only the youngest correspondent to work on the series but also the first black woman to hold the position. Now 26, she’ll be the first correspondent to step down since Noah took the reins from Jon Stewart nearly a year ago.

While the decision to leave may seem sudden — she only started telling her coworkers this past Tuesday — it’s not a total surprise considering that Williams signed a development deal with Comedy Central back in March. Thanks to her rapidly rising profile (a good number of viewers rooted for her to inherit Stewart’s chair), it was only a matter of time until she was presented with the chance to headline her own title.

The network has already seen lots of homegrown talent fly the coop only to become stars elsewhere, including Samantha Bee at TBS and John Oliver at HBO. With that in mind, letting Williams spread her wings in-house is both a creative and strategic no-brainer, says (newly promoted) Comedy Central president Kent Alterman. “We see her as a great voice — she’s so dynamic and so funny,” Alterman tells EW. “And she’s kind of grown up there at The Daily Show. Rather than say goodbye to her for her to go somewhere else, we want to make sure that we’re developing with her so that when she’s ready for her next platform, it can actually be with us.”

Williams’s new job is to work on writing, producing, and starring in the pilot for a half-hour scripted series. (Naomi Ekperigin, a writer for Broad City and Difficult People, is co-producing.) The still-untitled comedy will center on “a politically-minded young woman who may be ‘woke’ but doesn’t know what she’s doing,” according to the official description. “It’s a show about someone in their 20s who has all these social ideas but still, like, does not have it together,” Williams explains, before adding: “And she’s goofy and silly and funny!”

In a conversation with EW on Tuesday, the outgoing Daily woman excitedly revealed even more intel about her busy future: In addition to the pilot, she has her hit podcast 2 Dope Queens, a starring role in an upcoming romantic comedy, and, um, plans to grow a beard. Still, when she reflected on her time at The Daily Show, her voice wavered with emotion. “It really is such a warm, wonderful place to be,” she said. “They’re just like a family.”