Interview: ‘The Daily Show’ Host Desi Lydic on Her Emmy Nominated Segment

Desi Lydic joined The Daily Show as a correspondent in 2015, where she quickly made a name for herself with her biting satire and clever segments. Her work on the show often involves exploring and critiquing social and political issues, blending humor with insightful commentary. 

Last year, Lydic got her shot behind the desk as a guest host after the departure of Trevor Noah. Lydic now splits hosting duties with the recently returned Jon Stewart, as well as Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, and Ronny Chieng. Her regular segment, Desi Lydic Foxsplains, has earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Performer In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series. 

We spoke with Lydic about Foxplains, as well as taking over as host, her political interests prior to joining The Daily Show, and what her plans for the future are. 

First of all, thank you very much for being with me. And congratulations on the Emmy nominations. 

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Well deserved.

Thank you for saying that. It’s a bit wild, but yeah, we’ll roll with it. 

Also, congratulations on a relatively slow and uneventful election news cycle.

Yeah, it’s really tough finding news stories these days. We’re really trying to make something happen. It’s challenging. Not a lot to report on. 

Do you actually find that more challenging for you? I mean, right now we’re literally bombarded with news. Is it any different for you guys? There’s always news for you guys to tackle.

There’s always news, but it’s almost writing itself at this point. Some days I’m like, “This is just an embarrassment of riches.” Yeah, there’s a lot to cover. Election season is always really exciting for us. I mean, it’s kind of our bread and butter. We love covering elections. But this one in particular has been quite eventful. It’s hard.

You can’t write what’s happening right now. 

People are expecting this wild West Wing story. We’re not going to get a West Wing scenario where this is going to happen and that’s going to happen. And I’m like, “I don’t know, guys. Have you been paying attention to what’s happening?” Yeah, maybe not quite so saccharine and heartwarming, but I think Aaron Sorkin might be pulling the strings. Starting to wonder. 

I want to touch on your Foxplains series, which are brilliant. I have to say some of your absurdness isn’t that far off of what you’re parodying . Do you find it hard sometimes to out-Fox Fox News? 

Yes, we definitely do. Our writers are phenomenal and they have sacrificed so much of their time to watching an inhumane amount of Fox News. I can’t even imagine the mental health bills that are submitted to our accounting department. But it becomes a challenge every single time we do one where we think like, “Okay, we’ve got to out satire the satire. We have to somehow heighten this beyond belief; beyond what they’re actually saying.” And sometimes it does get frighteningly close. And there have been times in the past where we thought we were out-Foxing them, and then we wound up hearing an absurd fake joke conspiracy theory that we came up with later down the road on Newsmax. So I think we just have to keep working harder to try to make the mental gymnastics even more difficult to follow. 

In your opinion, what’s the key to a successful Foxplains piece? 

Great writing. We have an insane writing team that churn these babies out in less than 24 hours. It probably takes them like an hour and a half to write the script because we try to make it really topical. So, great writing, a lot of torturous watching of Fox News, and then I get pretty caffeineed up. So, I try to cue up my paranoia level a little bit. I drink like a giant cup of coffee to get jacked up, and a little bit of Ivermectin. 

Whatever works. Whatever takes.

Yeah. 

You’re hosting on a more regular basis. Is there anything about the job that you’ve eased into that maybe you weren’t comfortable with when you first started hosting last year? 

Oh my God, all of it. Every single time I get the chance to sit at the desk, I start to get a little more and more comfortable. It’s so much fun. We’re having the best time and I’m constantly pinching myself that they’re even allowing me to sit back there from time to time. I’m waiting for them to pull out the rug from underneath. But, it’s a huge learning experience because I’ve been a correspondent at the show for nine and a half years now. But the hosting is a totally different game. There’s no manual. There’s no way of easing your way into it. You just kind of have to throw yourself in and figure it out as you go, which has been really fun and really liberating. And every time I walk away, I pick up something new and think, “Okay, I’m not going to do that again. Maybe next time I’m going to try this.” But we’re so well supported by this team. The fact that we have had a rotation of hosts, this team at the show led by Jen Flans and all of our writers and producers, they’re so incredible that the machine is in place and they really have our backs every time. 

Does the job differ for you at all when you’re hosting with Jordan or Michael or Ronny versus when you’re doing it solo? 

Yeah, a little bit. It’s fun. I think I am kind of a fan of the duo scenario because it gives us a chance to play with each other. There’s certainly the voice of The Daily Show and we kind of know what we do, but we each have different perspectives and different lenses. So, there are stories that I can speak to in a different way than Jordan, and there are stories that Ronny can speak to in a different way than Costa. So it gives us a chance to cover the stories with a little more nuance than we would be able to with one person sitting at the desk. I come from the improv world. I’m not a standup. So, I love being thrown into that scenario and figuring it out as we go. I love the collaboration of it.

When you came on as a correspondent, Trevor was new to the job as well, but is having Jon back aid you in your hosting duties? 

Oh my God, yeah. They say never meet your heroes. I say meet your hero and then immediately get on their payroll. I’m going to stick with that advice. I started with Trevor, but when I auditioned for the show, Jon was the host at the time. And I watched Jon all through my twenties and loved The Daily Show, and I loved what he did and what all the correspondents of that time, Colbert and Carell and Sam Bee and Beth Littleford, I had watched for years. I was a huge fan. So Jon and that era was why I desperately wanted to be part of the show. So, now to have him come back and steer the ship along with Jen and come in on a Monday and watching him, not just host the show, but watching the process from the morning meeting, what he comes in with and hearing his perspective and how that gets worked out through rehearsal. And then in the rewrite process, it is, I could not imagine a better masterclass. 

I imagine there was a bit of a renewed energy when he returned.

Oh yeah. Oh, definitely. I think everyone felt that way. It sort of felt like, “Oh my God, dad went out for cigarettes, but he did come back. Yeah. It’s like Christmas morning, truly.

What were your political interests prior to The Daily Show? I mean, obviously you’re neck deep in politics now, but where were you before?

I wouldn’t say I was a political junkie before working at the show, for sure. I grew up in a very conservative family. My parents are lifelong Republicans. They happened to not be Trump fans, I did grow up in a pretty Republican family in Louisville, Kentucky. So, there was that as an influence growing up, but Louisville itself as a city is pretty liberal. And, and I think as I got into my twenties and thirties, I got a lot of my news at the time from Jon Stewart.

I was one of those people who was like, “Well, I’ll figure out what’s going on in the world by watching him.” And so, yeah, I think that started to shift my perspective a little bit on the world. But yeah, now there’s really no escaping it. We’re pretty, we’re pretty knee deep in all of it.

You were acting to begin with, but has this changed your aspirations? Do you want to go in the direction of like Samantha and John Oliver and Stephen do, or do you want to get back in the acting or are you just kind of coasting right now and not trying to think ahead?

I love all of it. I mean, part of why I love Foxplains so much is because I get to like be sort of in character and play that woman on the verge and it gives me a chance to kind of get back to the acting roots. But I am, I’m really loving hosting and I did not see that trajectory for myself. So it’s been kind of a lovely surprise at how much I, I really am enjoying it. So, I’m open. I am having the time of my life right now and you know, we’ll see what’s next.

You can watch our full interview with Desi Lydic, which includes a discussion about an early appearance on Fox & Friends, below. 

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, and is streaming on Paramount+.