“It’s been wild,” Trevor Noah told his audience after revealing that his “time is up” on hosting The Daily Show.

Deadline understands that Noah told his studio audience of his departure before telling many members of the Comedy Central series’ staff — news that blindsided many.

The Daily Show sources said that it was “imperative” for Noah to share the news with his fans during Thursday’s taping as he wanted them to hear it from him first.

But the fact that Noah told a few hundred strangers, admittedly some die-hard fans but likely including many tourists keen to get a ticket to a show, before he told some members of his production team was hard to take for some.

Noah is thought to have quietly re-upped his deal earlier this year, and he and his team were recently celebrating scoring seven Emmy nominations – the most since he took over from Jon Stewart in 2015.

Projects in the works have included a feature adaptation of Noah’s book Born a Crime and a reboot of The President’s Analyst, while there was talk of a mockumentary comedy series featuring Noah in the works with Paramount+.

You would expect at least the next host of either The Daily Show or The Late Late Show to be a woman

There’s also a deep bench of strong performers in the correspondent ranks: Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan and Roy Wood Jr have all been there some time alongside gonzo reporter Jordan Klepper, who recently told Deadline that he does fancy another desk job at some stage

On the production side, a new host would be the third for exec producer and showrunner Jen Flanz, who played a key role in the transition between Stewart and Noah and is expected to do the same with any such new table talker

“What a journey’s it’s been,” Noah said