'I'll start by thanking the crazy Africans who followed me': Trevor Noah wins Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series

After receiving 17 nominations over the past five years, South African comedian Trevor Noah has finally won an Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series with The Daily Show with Trevor Noah at Monday night’s 75th Annual Emmy Awards ceremony at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

The comedian also won an Emmy in 2017 in the category Outstanding Short Form Variety Series for his work on the programme.

The ceremony had been postponed since September 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and nominees were considered based on their show’s release date of between June 1 2022 and May 31 2023.

Though Noah left Comedy Central and The Daily Show on September 29 2022, after seven seasons, his show still qualified him for the nomination.

Noah beat late-night heavyweights Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart in his category to win the coveted Primetime Emmy award.

Standing on stage with his team from The Daily Show, the Johannesburg-born host gave a heartfelt acceptance speech. “I told you we would beat John Oliver if he wasn’t in our category,” he joked.

“Can I just say this — this story has been so long, has been so crazy, it’s been so wonderful. I start by thanking the crazy Africans who followed me to this country, David Kibuuka, Joseph Opio — thank you so much (director) David (Paul) Meyer my partner in crime.”

He continued: “And then the writers on the team, Roy Wood Jr, from the very beginning. Jordan Klepper’s flight got cancelled. Showrunner Jen Flanz — this woman rode with me through the trenches.”

The 39-year-old paused to say a special thank you to Jon Stewart, who invited Noah to take over in 2015 after Stewart hosted for 17 years on The Daily Show. “Honestly, the person I always thank, cause he’s just a crazy genius for thinking of it ... Hey Jon Stewart, wherever you are, my friend — thank you for calling me up. Thank you for asking me to come and join you on this crazy journey. And thank you everybody else in this category. Thank you to these people ... we did it baby, we did it!”

When asked about his favourite Daily Show episode in the press room after his win, Noah answered, Trump and the African Dictator was one of my favourite episodes, because that was an episode that we created against all odds. No-one thought the show stood a chance and creating that episode was particularly crazy.

“I don’t think American TV has seen that many clips of Robert Mugabe — so it was pretty wild putting that together. And seeing a team of people who didn’t even know me that well, rallying behind me and saying ‘yeah, we’ll help make this vision come to life. We’ll help figure out how we can help you tell the story that seemed crazy at the time and now, unfortunately has started to seem a lot more normal.'”

He continued: “The other episodes blend together but I would have to say that every time we were on the road together, that was one of my favourite experiences — you know, we travelled from Miami to Chicago and to Detroit — all these fantastic cities around America that left an indelible impression on what show we were making in their city and The Daily Show got to go to the people that we were making the show for, and we got to experience some of the joy you wouldn’t necessarily experience on the other side of the lens.”

Noah has had an excellent start to the Hollywood awards season so far. He was nominated in the recent Golden Globes for Best Stand-Up Comedian in Television; and he is nominated in the upcoming Grammys for Best Comedy Album, where he is also hosting for the fourth time in a row at the ceremony in Los Angeles on February 4.

• This article has been amended to reflect the comedian's 2017 Emmy win.

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