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Grammy Awards Host Trevor Noah on Why to Tune In, Being Nominated and His Post ‘Daily Show’ Life

Trevor Noah, winner of the award for outstanding variety talk series for "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah," poses in the press room during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Trevor Noah, winner of the award for outstanding variety talk series for "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah," poses in the press room during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
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Grammy Awards Host Trevor Noah on Why to Tune In, Being Nominated and His Post ‘Daily Show’ Life

Trevor Noah, winner of the award for outstanding variety talk series for "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah," poses in the press room during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Trevor Noah, winner of the award for outstanding variety talk series for "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah," poses in the press room during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Trevor Noah is ready to face one of the toughest audiences of his career — the millions watching as he once again hosts the Grammy Awards.

"It is easily the most nerve-wracking thing that I do, but I love it every single time," Noah tells The Associated Press ahead of Sunday's telecast. "Each year there’s a new highlight and a new moment that is embedded into my memory."

The 2024 Grammy Awards will air live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The telecast — with SZA having a leading nine nominations — will be Noah's fourth consecutive hosting gig for the awards.

He said he's looking forward to the live performances, especially ones by nominated artists Burna Boy, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Travis Scott.

"I always love seeing artists who have an innate understanding of how different and powerful the live experience is, and I think Burna Boy is one of those artists," Noah said. "He really excels in transforming live energy into a special moment in time.

"Billie Eilish has never given a half-hearted performance. Every time she’s on stage, it feels like watching a vignette from a classic film. It’s really thought-out and beautiful. I think Dua Lipa is one of the best pop performers of our lifetime. She does a fantastic job for this generation. Travis Scott is definitely going to be doing something crazy, so we should get ready for that. I would tune in because I think it’s a good mix of predictably amazing and then unpredictably amazing as well."

The comedian, best known for hosting Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show" from 2015-22, just won an Emmy Award for best talk series for the last season of the show. He previously won one in 2017 for hosting a spin-off show, "The Daily Show — Behind the Scenes," which was voted outstanding short-form variety series.

Noah is not only a host this year — he's also a nominee, with his comedy album "I Wish You Would" up against "I’m an Entertainer" by Wanda Sykes, "Selective Outrage" by Chris Rock, "Someone You Love" by Sarah Silverman and "What’s in a Name?" by Dave Chappelle.

"I’ve looked into all the Grammy bylaws, and there’s nothing that says being the host will give you any leg up in winning the award," Noah jokes. "I think Dave Chappelle is the favorite because he’s always the favorite, and rightfully so."

If that happens, don't expect Noah to be complaining that he lost the Grammy to Chappelle or that it's the second time he's lost a best comedy album Grammy to Chappelle.

"I don’t understand how people live in a world where you can lose something that you never had. I’ve never won a Grammy. I don’t have a Grammy. Unless Dave Chappelle comes to my house and takes my Grammy. I can never lose the Grammy to him," he says.

Award show hosts have had a rough few years, with The Slap marring the Oscars in 2022 and comedian Jo Koy getting critically panned at the Golden Globes earlier this year.

"In my head, it was always hard being a host. I always assumed anything could happen. I guess the very nature of comedy has always felt like that for me," says Noah. "I never blame an audience. I might not enjoy an audience, but I never blame an audience."

Harvey Mason Jr., president and CEO of the Recording Academy, has got Noah's back, calling the comedian "a total pro" as host.

"There’s never a hesitation, never a hiccup. There’s never a stumble. Second of all, he relates so well to the artists and to the music community in my mind, because he’s a fan and he’s an appreciator and a lover of music," says Mason.

Noah says he's enjoying his life post-"The Daily Show," which includes hosting the interview podcast "What Now? with Trevor Noah" which has attracted the likes of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bill Gates, Kerry Washington and DaBaby.

"I’m trying to build a platform where I get really comfortable and people get really comfortable having honest and open conversations with each other," says Noah. "We’re in a little short supply of that compassion for each other as human beings."

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.