“Sometimes radio is about keeping people listening, and TV is dictated by structure, but podcasts live in a beautiful space where they can ebb and flow where they need to,” he said, adding that the “timeless” nature of the medium appealed to him too.
He wants his new show’s brand partnerships to be be “segmented” and authentic: “The goal will be to find brands who understand that they’re speaking and working with human beings. They need to be creative, and want to explore more than an obvious hard sell.”
A perfect fit
Spotify’s Julie McNamara, the vp who heads up its global podcast studios, admitted the company had been trying to court Noah “long before” he left The Daily Show, but the multi-hyphenate presenter—who is currently in the midst of a global comedy tour—wanted to focus on one project at a time.
A chance meeting at the start of the year between Noah and Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan, where the pair switched numbers, opened up the conversation. Noah was impressed by Spotify’s ability as a business to be “willing to grow and expand outside itself,” sealing the deal.
While at The Daily Show, Noah fronted “Between the Scenes,” a short-form Emmy award-winning series that showed him interacting with the audience when the show cut to commercial. When he first met McNamara, she said he expressed a desire to spend more time with his audience and have deeper conversations, at length.
“He’s in a new act of his own life that’s a fascinating journey. So this just felt like a perfect fit,” she added.
The move speaks to Spotify’s ambitions in the space. It now distributes almost 5 million podcasts and says it wants to reach 50 million creators, after reseting its strategy following layoffs in the division at the beginning of 2023.
It also lands the streaming giant another big-name deal after its reported $20 million, multiyear plan to make podcasts with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex came to an end after just 12 episodes. The platform has been going big on promoting its original podcasting credentials at Cannes Lions Festival, with exclusive talks for advertising execs featuring creators including Noah himself and Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper.
The future of late-night
Since his departure, The Daily Show has been fronted by a string of guest hosts. Despite his experience, Noah said he hasn’t given them parting wisdom: “No one needed it,” he laughed. “I still talk to my friends on the show. I said goodbye, it was hugs and kisses and I’ve taken a moment, started doing my stand-up around the world and been thinking about what the next chapter of my journey would be.”
