No One Told Trevor He Was Hosting the Grammys

Trevor, Grammy Executive Producer Ben Winston, and Trevor’s good friend Sizwe Dhlomo take us deep behind the scenes of music’s biggest night. The trio discusses the decision to hold the event against the backdrop of the L. A. fires, how a series of unrelated missed calls made Ben think Trevor was dropping out, Beyonce’s at long last first album of the year win, and the unique challenges of putting on a live television event with so many music superstars.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Trevor Noah?

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• 0:35Trevor Noah?

  This segment is brought to you by Google Pixel. You know what's really frustrating? Knowing the exact information you need is somewhere on your phone, but still ending up wasting your time digging through five different apps just to actually find it. Thankfully, Google Pixel 11 is designed with Gemini intelligence, so it can proactively find the information I need right when I need it. Like my flight info on travel days or my calendar when Eugene texts me to hang out. Oh, sorry Eugene, I'm booked. Learn more about what Google Pixel 11 can do at googlestore.com. These AI features are available in select countries and languages for users 18 and over, and make sure to check responses.

• 1:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, booked forever, forever.

• 1:28Trevor Noah?

  This is What Now? with Trevor Noah.

• 1:39Trevor Noah?

  How much time do we have with you?

• 1:40Speaker 01

  I'll admit as much as you want.

• 1:41Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like, fuck it, let's go.

• 1:46Trevor Noah?

  Do you want to start with the Kanye or should we?

• 1:51Speaker 01

  Actually, I wanted to show you what I'm wearing underneath here.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Can you imagine? That would have been really funny if I turned up in like a fur coat and nothing underneath. Would have been a bit of a weird joke.

• 2:01Trevor Noah?

  Actually, I actually do want to start with the Kanye, so.

• 2:06Trevor Noah?

  As the executive producer of the Grammys.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:09Trevor Noah?

  Do you, like, are you happy or are you pissed? Or was there another emotion that comes with seeing Kanye West like pop up on the Grammys red carpet? When he wasn't supposed to be there, like, is there like a thing that, no, because on one, on one hand, it's good for the show in a way. Because everyone's like, oh shit, what's gonna happen? Oh, and then on the other hand, it's like you have a pre-planned thing. Like, what's your first emotion when that happens?

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Genuinely, honestly.

• 2:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  I couldn't carry the way, like, I, I, I, I was like, I think he's, like, he's not for me.

• 2:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  And so like, I was just like, oh, it's, you know, it's just what he does, right? He, he, but I genuinely didn't think about it. The, the truth of it is during that red carpet, you know.

• 2:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Like, I am, that is, that is the most stressful period of like my year. That, that one hour, that like, that ninety minutes.

• 2:58Trevor Noah?

  Because that's the one hour leading into the show.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  That's the ninety minutes where you finish a dress rehearsal, which went terribly.

• 3:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  And you finish that at like two forty and then the show goes live at five. It's like that Lorne Michaels thing. He's always says, it doesn't matter when you're ready, the show goes live at five and it is what it is.

• 3:14Trevor Noah?

  Uh huh.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  So like, there was a thing about Kanye, I genuinely didn't even see it till after the show. Honestly, I didn't.

• 3:20Trevor Noah?

  Wow.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Like, I, I, I knew there was a thing and I knew he'd done like a stunt with his wife and I was like, oh. I said, is the cameras gonna work? Is the comms gonna work? Is the show gonna work? Like, that's all I genuinely, that's all I was thinking about at that time. I was very in the zone. So I wasn't distracted, but I knew he wasn't coming to the main show.

• 3:37Trevor Noah?

  How did you know that?

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Because I'd heard, um, I'd heard he was just coming to the red carpet and then leaving and he didn't have a, I'm, I'm in charge of the floor plan.

• 3:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, well, that's what got me because I know where everyone's gonna be sitting. And I didn't see Kanye. Then for a moment, I thought you didn't tell me Kanye was coming because you wanted to surprise me.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  I don't know if anyone knew Kanye was coming, but I think, but there was no truth, genuinely no truth to him being kicked out. Like, that's just not true. He, he went and did the carpet and as far as I understand it, he then got in a car and left.

• 4:05Trevor Noah?

  Huh. But did he tell people he was coming?

• 4:07Speaker 01

  I don't know. Genuinely, I don't know. You'd have to ask the Academy.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  I suppose in theory, there's no way to stop him from coming. So if he came as Jay-Z's guest, for example, right?

• 4:17Trevor Noah?

  Was he nominated?

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, if he comes, if he comes as Jay-Z's guest, Ben Condon say, hey dude, you're not welcome here.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's right. If you're a plus one. That's true. That's a very good point because I never know the plus ones. So you know that like Madison Beer is sat over here.

• 4:32Trevor Noah?

  But you don't know who Madison Beer is.

• 4:33Speaker 02

  Because last year, Kanye West. Last year, Jay-Z came to Uzi, right? So it could be.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you said that, but then, but then people, you're right, you don't know. And people show up with famous people and then suddenly they're on camera like you didn't know they were coming. And it's like, oh, they're there with, you know, whoever.

• 4:50Trevor Noah?

  I think this was the most dramatic red carpet we've had at the Grammys, like in the years that we've done it together.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 4:56Trevor Noah?

  Because we, like, this was the year where Kanye steps onto the Grammy. Then immediately people were, there's every opinion, right? So some people were going, how can the Grammys allow this? There are children there. Now there's a naked woman on the red carpet. My children. There's always the children. I'm always like, there's, you know, the children are there, the children, the children. So that's what the people were saying. And then, um, I don't know if you saw any of these actually, because you're so wrapped up in the show.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, I see quite a lot afterwards.

• 5:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah. Then there was the Babyface.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Oh, I did see that.

• 5:25Trevor Noah?

  You see that, right?

• 5:25Speaker 01

  I did see that.

• 5:26Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the two AP reporters or whatever they were interviewing.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Chapo?

• 5:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they're interviewing Babyface mid-conversation.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:33Trevor Noah?

  They're just like, ah.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  You know what? I only actually saw that well afterwards because Khloe Kardashian tweeted about it. She posted the video going, Babyface is a legend. How dare you? And the first thing I thought is, and Babyface is a mate of mine, like I love Babyface, like he's like, not only is he a legend and an icon and a music official, he's also one of the nicest men.

• 5:54Trevor Noah?

  He actually is.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  No, he's genuine. There is no.

• 5:56Trevor Noah?

  Even how he handled that was.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. He's full of love and praise. I love being around him. Like I, I find him an, I find him an inspiring dude just from his like manner. And, but I felt sorry for those reporters. I actually did. Because it's like, it's like the culture that we're in right now, where like they, they're red carpet reporters on AP. They're not Trevor Noah hosting the Grammys. They don't have 10,000 hours of experience. They're on a thing. They probably don't know the story and the history of Babyface's commitment to music. And then Chaparron, who is one of the biggest stars, they don't. They know Chapel Rohn better than they'd ever know Babyface and they're like, oh, don't. And they know that they're gonna get more bang for their buck there. I'm not being disrespectful to Babyface. Of course they handled it badly, but I hate the way society turns on them.

• 6:39Trevor Noah?

  But I think it's also why he said, do you want that? Like, think about it.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was so sweet.

• 6:43Trevor Noah?

  That man has been in the game since when.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:45Trevor Noah?

  He knows every red carpet, he knows every, he knows what the game is about. So he, to your point, he didn't even. He had no ego in the way he did. He was like, oh, you guys need that, don't you?

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:56Trevor Noah?

  And he's like, I'm on my way. He's like, I stopped to talk to you because you need this.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:59Trevor Noah?

  And now he's like, I get that you need that, but I think what it was is this, he doesn't need it.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  No, he doesn't.

• 7:05Trevor Noah?

  So he wasn't offended in any way and he was like, oh, whatever. He's like, I don't need this.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  I agree. I just wish people didn't immediately like go out to find who those two girls are and then let's, let's just make their life miserable.

• 7:15Trevor Noah?

  You just wish the internet doesn't exist.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I guess.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  Well, in all fairness, I do need a certain, I think there's like a certain amount of accountability that they need to be held to.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Why? It's a red carpet. No one even needed to see it. No one would have known about it. Why does everyone need to be so offended all the time?

• 7:31Trevor Noah?

  No, but okay, okay.

• 7:32Speaker 02

  On his behalf, I see why people are offended.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  But if he wasn't, he said straight afterwards, that I didn't care less. He'd be embarrassed by this whole thing.

• 7:38Trevor Noah?

  Yes. I think it's a, it's a tough lesson for them to, like the way they're learning the lesson. If they had a good producer, someone who'd just say like, don't do it like that again. Next time, rope the person in, oh my God, it's Chapel Rohn. Babyface, do you know Chapel Rohn? Oh, Chapel, have you ever, man, oh, legend, old school legend, new school, oh, man, Chapel, you, you have to, you have to work with Babyface. You two should do a thing. And then you get those magic moments as well on the carpet where it's like, now you've got Babyface and Chapel Rohn.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Whoever saw that coming.

• 8:03Trevor Noah?

  And then she might go, I'm a huge fan of this song. And he's like, what? I didn't know. She's like, yeah, the way you remix that, the thing you do with Mariah Carey on that song. Oh, it inspired me to sing. That could have been a moment.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  That's why they're paying the big bucks.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  But this is actually.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  We saw a lesson in hosting there.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  I thought I was coming to what now. I'm actually coming to masterclass. I'm coming to my masterclass.

• 8:24Trevor Noah?

  Oh, this guy, I can't even.

• 8:27Speaker 02

  I was gonna say, this is actually the issue, though, with a lot of the, I'll say, podcast culture, or the people that end up broadcasting without putting in the 10,000 hours, right? Because back in the day, if you ended up with any kind of a platform, you would have done things like a small television station or whatever it is.

• 8:45Trevor Noah?

  That's actually true.

• 8:46Speaker 02

  And you get to the point where you know how to deal with the red carpet moments, which is largely unscripted, anything happens. Now, what you end up with is people that obviously have a very, very strong following, but they haven't got the experience behind them to be able to know to do something like that.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm confused. We're talking about two girls who are hosting for AP live on a red carpet at the Grammys.

• 9:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  That's not, they're not hosting the Oscars here.

• 9:09Trevor Noah?

  No, but I get, but Caesar's right, though.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  No, no, no, this is their experience.

• 9:12Trevor Noah?

  No, but Caesar, no, but here's where Caesar's right. Back in the day, you couldn't even get to the AP hosting on the red carpet without having like.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  No way.

• 9:20Trevor Noah?

  You know what, you know what you see this actually is with stand-up comedy now, today, right? There are comedy clubs around the country, like the US particularly, and some in the world, where they've started hiring people who are funny on TikTok. And then they come to the comedy club, their fans come, they pack it up, and then 10 minutes in, everyone realizes no one was prepared for this moment. Like, the TikTok comedian doesn't know how to make the people laugh, or doesn't know how to shift with the room. The room doesn't know what to do, and then club owners started booking backup acts for the TikTok stars because they knew that red carpet thing would happen to them in the clubs. So I hear what you're saying, but I also get what you're saying.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  It's fair.

• 9:57Trevor Noah?

  It's not like they shot Babyface, is what I'm saying. No, no, no, let's be honest, we're also making it seem like what they did, we made it seem like, like, there were some people online who were like, Babyface, you, I can't believe, all the work. They made it seem like Babyface, like, dragged himself down the carpet.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:11Trevor Noah?

  Still bleeding from the wound they'd inflicted upon him.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  It's difficult, and it's difficult on live, and it's like, ah, and I got it. They knew that they were gonna get more hits if they managed to get Chapel, and Chapel's not hanging around. Chapel's not gonna go, and I don't mean anything about Chapel, but she's not gonna go, oh, I'll sit here for six minutes while you finish with Babyface, she's on, and you've either got to get her or you don't. So I get it, but you're right, the way they should have done it would be the collapse.

• 10:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I think there's just like a swag that, to your point, would come from experience. I wonder what would have happened if Kanye came in, I'm not gonna lie. I kept on wondering what would have happened.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Inside the venue?

• 10:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. Oof.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  Nothing would have, well, nothing would have happened.

• 10:48Trevor Noah?

  No, what I mean is like.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  He most likely would have done something.

• 10:50Trevor Noah?

  So you think he would have come on stage?

• 10:51Speaker 02

  A hundred percent. And I'll tell you why. Whenever there's been a big moment and Kanye knows that he can seize it, he will.

• 10:59Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 11:00Speaker 02

  Funny enough, MTV Awards, I don't even know what year it was, when he stepped on stage and Justice versus Simeon won the video for Video of the Year.

• 11:09Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  And he had, what's that?

• 11:15Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Anyway, that video, he had that video nominated. He steps on stage and he goes, "Man, this video cost a million dollars fam. I had knee along in this." So whenever there's a moment that he can seize for attention.

• 11:28Trevor Noah?

  He does it, yeah.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  He, yeah. Now, obviously that was a long time ago. Maybe he's a different man now.

• 11:32Trevor Noah?

  Well, I don't think so. He like seized the red carpet.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  How would you have coped if he was in the room? How would you have felt honestly if he was in the room, knowing that he was there, knowing that there's an unpredictability around you at those tables? Because you're vulnerable.

• 11:44Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Because you're not, most hosts.

• 11:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Are on a stage.

• 11:47Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 11:48Speaker 01

  They're away from people.

• 11:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, they're not amongst the people.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  You are right in amongst it.

• 11:51Trevor Noah?

  So, two, one, he's very unpredictable, but I have met Kanye and post me and Kanye having a thing. And can I tell you, he was very sweet. He was very nice. He had a cordial conversation. And one of the, one of the things about Kanye that I think a lot of people don't know is even when he has his like, you know, when he, when he spins and when he's going through something, whatever it might be bipolar or not. Kanye West loves comedy, like loves comedy and loves telling jokes. And if you listen to his raps, you know how much he loves telling jokes. He's got some of the best punchlines in his raps. But when he tweets them, I think a lot of them don't come off well. And comedy, as we all know, you miss. You know what I mean? Comedy is about misses. So, so the first part I'll say is this, I wouldn't be afraid.

• 12:35Trevor Noah?

  But I would be worried for the show and what's gonna happen. Cause now, is Kanye gonna go up? Uh, when Taylor's up again now, is Kanye gonna, cause now I'm the person who's in the room. And then now I go, you know, you don't want Kanye West getting tackled by a security guard, but you also don't wanna be the security guard. So I, I don't know what it would be. I think I would, I would have, and then on a night when we're there and half the room, I would say even three quarters of the room. Has like a strange, morose feeling to them. That's not the night you want unpredictability.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  No.

• 13:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because I don't know about you, but like this, this Grammys emotionally was the hardest Grammys I've ever done.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Hmm. Yeah, I mean, for sure. That's, look, Kanye, the Kanye thing is, look, for me, I would have, I, I, I, I would have done everything we can, I, I don't know.

• 13:25Trevor Noah?

  Would you have cut to him or cut away from him?

• 13:27Speaker 01

  I, I, I'm not going to talk on him and the Grammys either way. Luckily, I didn't even know about it because I was too busy, but I'm not, like, I'm not going to go out of my way and go, oh, let's clear a table. Let's get rid of one of the nominees in the jazz category to give yay a table. I'm not, but if it's, it's up to the Academy, I know it's nothing to do with me.

• 13:42Trevor Noah?

  I think people would have been stressed in the room.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  But it was, but moving from that, it was a very different atmosphere because people didn't know how they were supposed to feel. And it was a really weird one because everybody's there and you won them over in a big way, and so did the show, and I feel really good about that. And the response that we've had from it, I don't know if you read reviews, but like, so the.

• 14:04Trevor Noah?

  No, I don't.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  So Vanity Fair, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, also without question, best Grammys of all time. Like, they're really going wild of it. And I do think that's because you got the balance really well.

• 14:13Trevor Noah?

  No, I think, I think the show.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  Tricky for sure, because people don't know whether, is this supposed to be a sad event? Is it a happy event? Are we dancing or are we crying? Are we giving or are we taking? Like, and it was very, it was a weird dance for you to have to do.

• 14:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I think, no, but I, but I think for all of us, so, okay, like, to your point. We, you know, everything is happening in relation to everything else. That's life, right? So now you're in Los Angeles where everyone, you forget six degrees of separation. Everyone either lost a home or knows someone who lost a home. So it's as simple as that. You start, you just start with that, right? So you've got the room full of people, but now what I realized as the night was going was, we're also in a moment. Where the majority of the people in that room are also feeling a certain kind of way. So Lady Gaga, if it was any other year, would have just been like, fun times, thank you very much. And then Lady Gaga goes, yo, trans people are not invisible. Then you're like, oh shit, yes, Trump said the thing.

• 15:10Trevor Noah?

  And this is on Gaga's mind and she, you know, and then you think that's done. And then Chapel Rohn comes up, she wins the award. She doesn't just go like, what a good time, I love life, wow, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a new artist, I'm the best, no. She goes, let me tell you how shit it is being an artist who doesn't make money. And what actually happens on the other side or the, you know, before, the precursor to success. You can't afford anything, you don't know what your life's gonna be, and you don't have healthcare.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:34Trevor Noah?

  And if you don't have healthcare in America, you're screwed, you know what I mean? So now, in a way, she's touching on like the Luigi Mangione of it all. And people are like, oh yeah, healthcare, we're screwed in this country.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 15:44Trevor Noah?

  And then.

• 15:45Speaker 01

  Alicia with the.

• 15:46Trevor Noah?

  Then, yeah, then Dochi gets on.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, Dochi.

• 15:48Trevor Noah?

  And then Dochi goes, it's a celebratory thing, but then Dochi gives you a reminder. She's like, yo, if you're a dark-skinned black woman, you are seen as aggressive, you are seen as wrong, you are seen as loud and you. So again, people are cheering, but they're like, oh yeah, shit, what a shit. And then Alicia Keys comes on and she goes, hey, we do need diversity. We want everyone in the same room, we want people together, we wanna create. So you realize that everyone walked into a room with something on their minds other than awards and music, which is rare for the awards and music. Like, the last time I think this probably happened was maybe when Kobe died.

• 16:23Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 16:23Trevor Noah?

  Right? And then we weren't doing the Grammys that time, but it was like, literally, night before the Grammys or the day of or something, it's like.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  No, I was actually, I was funnily enough involved in that.

• 16:31Trevor Noah?

  You were involved in that one?

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I had been given the job that I have now. I was given the job as executive producer of the Grammys.

• 16:37Trevor Noah?

  Oh damn.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  But what I said is, I, I, I wanted to go for a year and not be number one. So I went and I was the, I was a producer on that show, essentially being like the number two on it. Shouting Ken Erlich, who is the producer, because I wanted to know like how to do it. Because that's a beast of a show and I didn't. And also, you can't just get the job and your first time being the producer of it is being the like showrunner of it.

• 16:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  So I went for two years, I did the Alicia Keys one because they had penciled me and they knew that I was gonna be it. So, I mean, listen, if somebody says, oh, you're gonna go and like help out the producers at the Grammys and you're taking this thing over, you're gonna go. So it was the morning of, it was just before the dress run started. It's 10 o'clock in the morning, we heard, and I went into Alicia's dressing room and I sat with her and I said, listen, just so you know, we just heard the news that Kobe's died and she was totally shocked. And I think she had the idea that we should go and find Boys to Men and see it, because they were in the building for some reason, maybe they were nominated or whatever. And so we had that idea and then I had the idea to black out all the other shirts. Because you know, in the rafters. And so we did a shot of that, but it was, it was Ken Erlich was exec producer, but I, I was there that day, but you're right.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  It was one of the, but it seems like with the Grammys, well before our time, Whitney dies.

• 17:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they call it the Grammy's curse.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  I mean, Whitney dies and then it happens. We've had, we've had Kobe in the house that he built at Staples Center. Obviously, we did two during Covid, then we had the fires this time. It's always a lot to handle. It's always a lot to handle. But then you're used to that in a way because you went on television every night with The Daily Show and you would have a script that would be funny and then you'd have to chuck it out because there'd be a shooting somewhere. So didn't that give you the, like the experience of doing that? Or do you just think it's so different because it's a one-off event like that?

• 18:18Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so it's similar in some ways.

• 18:21Trevor Noah?

  And then in other ways, it's, it's a lot harder and a lot different. And I'll, I'll, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, let's take a break and then right after that, I'll, I'll explain what I mean. We're gonna continue this conversation right after this short break. Some of the most interesting things you learn happen while you're doing something completely ordinary. Maybe you're cooking dinner or watching a history video. Maybe you're on a flight catching up on a long-form interview. Or maybe you're trying to figure out how to fix something in your house because apparently owning a screwdriver means you're an electrician now. But you see, that's one of the things I love about YouTube Premium. I travel a lot, so I download videos before a flight. That way, I'm not leaving my entertainment in the hands of airplane wifi.

• 19:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I've made that mistake before. You think you're gonna watch something in 4K and suddenly everyone's face is pixels. But one of my favorite features is smart downloads. You see, YouTube Premium can automatically download recommended videos for you based on what you already watch. So sometimes I'll get on a plane, I look at my phone, I'm like, ah, I didn't download anything. And it's like, no, YouTube already thought about this. They packed entertainment for me in my little lunchbox. And with background play, I can lock my phone, switch apps, and whatever I'm watching just keeps on going. So if you like YouTube, you will love YouTube Premium. Sign up now for your free trial at youtube.com/premium. Terms apply. Cancel anytime.

• 19:50Trevor Noah?

  Pretty much every brand offers rewards these days, but most of them, let's be honest, they aren't that rewarding. Well, starting now, Verizon's doing rewards different. Rewards you'll love all year round for every customer. They're introducing Verizon Dollars, which gives you cash back every month just for being a customer. That's it. Plus, you have the flexibility to use those glorious new dollars how you want. Shop with Verizon. Get gift cards for the brands that you love or transfer them to our partner programs. They're also introducing Verizon Shine, where now, every Monday, you can snag once-in-a-lifetime experiences like NFL tickets across the globe,

• 20:35Trevor Noah?

  all-inclusive music festivals, and the chance to meet your favorite stars. Plus, daily drops, tickets, and pre-sale access all week. So let's recap. Cash back in your pocket every month with Verizon Dollars. And epic experiences from Verizon Shine every Monday all year round. Now, those are some rewarding rewards only from Verizon. Enroll today at Verizon.com.

• 20:59Trevor Noah?

  Earth can be a lot sometimes. Heat waves, gas prices, bad hair days. Why not go where life is good? Escape to Pluto TV. Turn off your problems and turn on your favorite movies and shows. You know, the ones you already love. From Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy, to Dirty Dancing, to Top Gun Maverick. From Alias to The X-Files. It's all here and all free. Go where the TV is always good. Escape to Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.

• 21:41Trevor Noah?

  Doing The Daily Show, and you, you understand this feeling because you were doing The Late Late Show with Corden. I was. One of the worst days, not just for the show but for people, was whenever there was a mass tragedy. You know, which would unfortunately happen all too often in America. So it would be mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting. This happened, you know, it was always something like that. And those days were tough. However, the Grammys is exponentially tougher. Because everyone coming to The Daily Show was coming to engage in Trevor Noah's opinion of the world. Or the show's processing of the world with the correspondents and everyone else. So it was like, in a weird way, it's like we're all coming to the same church.

• 22:25Trevor Noah?

  We all have the same religion and now we're just going to process what has happened to us as people, right? And this year, like I realized it more than most years. The Grammys is the perfect coming together of strangers. And it's something we don't have in society anymore, right? You have someone walking to the building who lives in Miami full time. They're only here because their record label or their company brought them or, but they live in Miami. You've got someone who comes from London. You've got somebody who comes in from Finland and they're like an engineer. And they're phenomenal, but like nobody knows them except in the music industry. You've got people from New York, you've got, you've got people from every. Nashville has a whole. Yeah, Nashville has a whole contingency, right? But then you even break it up amongst like genres and ideas.

• 23:09Trevor Noah?

  You know, there's a joke, you saw the joke I made at the top when I go like mustard. And then I was like, ask your black friends. Because I know the whole chunk of the room is like, what was that? Like, what was that? Or what is happening here?

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:23Trevor Noah?

  And its difficulty is, I think, the thing that makes it beautiful. It's like, it comes with a precariousness. But I also enjoy the fact that somebody who only listens to hip hop is now gonna hear a country artist for the first time. Somebody who only listens to pop is gonna hear a rock artist for the first time. Somebody, I think there's a greater cross pollination of fans in music at the Grammys than in any other instance. Because when else are you forced, in a good way, to engage in somebody else's ideas? Now, for me as the host, it becomes extra hard because comedy is extremely subjective. And comedy is like, people also have to come for comedy. Some people have come to the Grammys or they're even like watching on TV. And then they're like, yeah, get done with this. I'm here for Beyonce.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:08Trevor Noah?

  Who is this guy? Yabba yabba yabba yabba. Come on, come on, come on, come on, get. And I know this, I know this as well. You know, that's the job of the host, you're like moving things along, right? But it becomes harder because it's not a funeral, but there's been huge devastation. It's not a comedy show, but people do wanna laugh.

• 24:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:26Trevor Noah?

  You know, it's an award show, but it's also a somber night in many ways. It's all these things are happening. So it's much harder, because with The Daily Show, at the end of the day, I would go, you're at The Daily Show, I'm at The Daily Show, welcome to The Daily Show.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  And it's about The Daily Show.

• 24:43Trevor Noah?

  Let me tell you when I, let me tell you when I knew how different the Grammys was. This isn't like a long ago story. Four or five weeks ago, I was in a restaurant in New York, having like lunch or something. And the manager of the restaurant walked over and went, hey, Trevor, congratulations on hosting the Grammys. What an amazing, wow, this is gonna be great for you and your career. I was like, thank you. And he's like, man, are you nervous? Like, doing this for the first time is gonna be crazy. And I paused and I was like, ah. And then the person I was having the lunch with, very sweet, but he leaned in, he's like, what? It's not his first time, it's his second time.

• 25:26Trevor Noah?

  And that's what I realized that like, and not even realized, I've always known this. The Grammys is not about me, nor am I, you know me, I'm not trying to make it about me. I'm trying to keep the show moving and I'm trying to stitch things together. But there are people who are coming for their person. And if their person's not there, they're not coming.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:44Trevor Noah?

  So they're a fan of this artist, if the artist is not there, they're not watching. You know, and so I am just this random person who pops into people's lives.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:53Trevor Noah?

  And tries to stitch together an incoherent group of people that you, in my opinion, and I'll say this to you before we forget. Masterfully put it together. This, I've been to, I've been to five Grammys now. Let me tell you something, Ben. The way you stitch, like, just like the best new artists.

• 26:10Trevor Noah?

  You know, everyone going from Benson Boone, you know, going over to Dochi, going over to Teddy Swims, going over to Ray. Yo. Like even that is, that, that's hard because it's all different people doing different things. And yet you created a cohesive vibe. That, that's, that's what keeps bringing me back to the Grammys.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Well, a couple of things. Firstly, um, it's, it's really funny that you say that because when you say about the show and how difficult it is for you going. All people are here for different reasons. I think about that in the way I program the show all the time. Because I'm perfectly aware that like Auntie Marilyn in Nebraska.

• 26:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Does not want to watch Dochi and in the same way that like somebody who loves Dochi is not interested in Laney Wilson. It's like, so that's partly why we've done as much as we can to like make the show something for everybody. In the videos that we explain who everybody is.

• 27:03Trevor Noah?

  But I would even, I would even interject and say, it's not that they don't want to, they don't know that they want to.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, but we try and make it like a show that everybody will enjoy from beginning to end. I think you under, I, I think you undermine, not undermine, that's the wrong word. I think you underserved the purpose that you have in that show. And, and like Corden, I, I got involved in the Grammys because of James Corden. So obviously I was his, I'm, I am his partner and I was his showrunner for Late Late Show with Rob.

• 27:31Trevor Noah?

  Business partner, by the way, not married.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're not married, we're not married.

• 27:34Trevor Noah?

  No, no, because people, no, no, because.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 27:35Trevor Noah?

  People say words that mean other things all the time.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 27:38Trevor Noah?

  And then some will be like, wow, James Corden's married to this guy.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 27:40Trevor Noah?

  I didn't know James Corden was even gay. And then, then it's a whole thing. And then it's like, it's like when Kendrick said.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  Successful couple.

• 27:45Trevor Noah?

  When Kendrick said, my aunt transitioned a few days ago.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 27:50Trevor Noah?

  And then I could feel the room go, wait, Kendrick's aunt just transitioned? And then most of the black people were like, we know what he meant. He meant passed away.

• 27:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:59Trevor Noah?

  But then I saw a lot of white people be like.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  He's got an uncle.

• 28:01Trevor Noah?

  What? Yeah, literally, like, so. And he actually does, funny enough. Yeah, it was very confusing. So I just wanted to throw that in.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Yes, I do love him, but he's not my lover.

• 28:10Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  So I only got involved in the Grammys because he got asked to host it. So I went along to be his like host producer.

• 28:17Trevor Noah?

  Got it, got it, got it.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  And that's when Recording Academy got to know me. And that's when like CBS and the Recording Academy said, would you ever? Then he decided he wasn't going to do the Grammys anymore. Alicia Keys got appointed and they said to me, Ken is, you know, however old he is. I think it was at, you know, seventy odd, eighty, whatever. They said, would you ever consider it? He'd run it forty years. And I was like, and that's how this all happened. But James always used to say something, and I wonder if you feel. James always used to say the morning after the Grammys, and I'll never forget it. He always used to say, the thing I don't understand why I do this is if it goes badly, it's career suicide. You are, you are a joke, you are over, you are rubbish, you can never work again. It's a disaster. If it goes well, you get twelve lovely emails.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  You get twelve lovely emails. He's like, he's like, why, why do I, I don't need twelve lovely emails. I don't do. But like, he also did it for the buzz and the love of it and the excitement. And for you, I, I genuinely, the biggest panic I had this year was in regards to you. And I don't know if you know this. I genuinely could not have done this show this year without you. I couldn't have done it without you. It was such a high wire act. Because loads of people said we shouldn't do the show. Like loads of people were like, cancel the Grammys, do better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, um, what's her name, the amazing actress from Hacks? Uh, Jean Smart. Yeah. She said, cancel all award shows and give the money to Fire Relief or whatever. It's like, there was this real, like, and everyone was like, why are you doing this?

• 29:45Speaker 01

  It's not about people picking up gold statues and all this. So there was this huge attention on us and everyone was going, you're cancelling it, right? You're cancelling it. I really didn't want to cancel it for many reasons. One, I thought we could do real good on the night. Two, I thought it's three week and a half weeks away and actually like, well, we were deep in the fires. Three and a half weeks away. If the fires are still raging. But you, you had been evacuated from your own home and you were still like, I think we can do the show. A hundred percent wanted to do it more than ever. Okay. What people don't realise, and I'm going, I'm going to come back to the bit by a second. But what people don't realise and why I was annoyed, but I don't get annoyed much, you know that. Yeah, no, you don't. When people were like, they should just cancel it. I was like going.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  We did the math on this. Six thousand five hundred people, all from Los Angeles, in some ways take a wage from the Grammys happening. I'm not talking about Sabrina Carpenter in Chapel Road. I'm talking about the people who build the stages, the caterers, the producers, the writers, the choreographers. That's how many, but the drivers, it's, it's insane. So all these people saying, and a lot of them lost their houses and a lot of them I know. Yeah. And the worst thing I could do to them, the worst thing, as the executive producer of the show, the single worst thing I could possibly do to any of those people is go, hey, guys, because you guys are struggling right now and because, because you've lost your house. Yeah. Uh, and because you're having a really tough time, we've decided to take your wage away. Okay. Just to make things a bit easier for you so that you don't need to work right now.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  Okay. I hope that makes you feel good. You know, we're really with you, heart's with you, I love LA. What? Like, it was just, it just didn't understand. And then people were like, there was somebody from Nashville who was going to come to the show. Mm hmm. Big star. And they said, their agent called and they said, they don't want to take hotel rooms in LA. So we're no longer going to be doing it because we don't, we think it's inappropriate to take hotel rooms. I was like, hotel rooms right now in Los Angeles, the week of the Grammys, and actually that week, which was three weeks ago, were at thirty two percent capacity.

• 31:39Trevor Noah?

  You know what's funny? I said this to Seesway. So Seesway, you flew in from, we were in South Africa, because I mean, we did the other podcast together, a few episodes, yeah, like now, basically, a few weeks ago.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  Two weeks ago.

• 31:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, we did the episode together. Then he flew and I said to him, I was shocked. I was like, LA is empty.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  Empty.

• 31:56Trevor Noah?

  The airport is empty, the flights coming in are empty, the hotels are empty. LA is empty.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  But people are, they're like.

• 32:03Trevor Noah?

  And then you said, sorry, sorry to interrupt you. You said to me, you were like, yo, man, LA is down. Like, you remember, because you said something about like how everything is, you notice it coming in.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  The flights were extremely cheap or relatively cheap compared to what they would have been like this time last year.

• 32:16Trevor Noah?

  For sure.

• 32:16Speaker 02

  Um, and then, as you say, everything was fully available.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Everything was available because the hotels are empty. And so I've got an artist team from Nashville. When I live and love in, I like love LA now.

• 32:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  I've become proper, I'm ten years here.

• 32:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you have, I don't.

• 32:29Speaker 01

  No, I changed. We can talk about that too, but I can't get distracted. Let me go.

• 32:31Trevor Noah?

  Okay, okay, go, go, go, go.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  So like, you know, I feel very, when something like that happens, you become, you either go, twenty nineteen, there was a fire in my garden. It was Getty Center. We were evacuated. I thought everything was gone.

• 32:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 32:43Speaker 01

  It was fine, my house, but I was like, get me home to London. What the hell am I doing here in this place that can burn my house down? I was like, done. This time, I don't know why, entirely different. Maybe it's because I've got two kids now and two, like, two little Americans. Maybe it's just I've grown in to love this country. Maybe it's I've just been here, it's my eleventh year. But I just had this pride in our city. I was like, we're gonna, it was really, it was just like resilience and like love for it. It's why we started with I love LA on the show. It's why we did all the like local businesses. It all came from that like heart of like what I feel about the city.

• 33:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you had, you had like a.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  No, I'm in it.

• 33:19Trevor Noah?

  Uncharacteristically, um, I say uncharacteristically because like, I always find like English people are resilient, but there isn't like the same level of schmaltz.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:30Trevor Noah?

  No, I know, it is. I've got.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  But now you have like a.

• 33:32Trevor Noah?

  No, I do. I love this place.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  You're like, my neighbours and we're getting together, we gotta make this, and we gotta get blankets to the people and we gotta, it's like, yeah, come on, USA. That's what I'm waiting for.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

• 33:41Trevor Noah?

  No, no.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  I'm not chanting USA, guys. Few more years. I've started to get to know my neighbours' names. Few more years. Yeah. Four more years. Make the Grammys great again, guys. So, so, so then when this artist said, um, no, we're not gonna come, we're put, you know, we don't wanna come. And they weren't, they weren't in the show anyway. It hadn't confirmed, but I was hoping to get them. And they were like, no, we're gonna keep the hotel rooms free. And it was, the idea that people who have been evacuated, either there is, either they are not wealthy enough to stay in a hotel for more than two or three nights. You think they're staying at the London on Sunset Boulevard for like three months? Right. Like, they can't, they don't have, they don't have any possessions anymore. Or they're wealthy enough to rent a new place or move on out. The economics of a hotel will just never work.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  Right. So, so, so the hotels are empty. Everybody knows that in this town. Bars aren't being used, valets, like, the whole thing. So, that annoyed me. So that's why I was like, a friend of mine, Jeffrey, I'm gonna, I hope he won't mind. Jeffrey Katzenberg calls me, literally while I'm evacuated and while everybody is going, we don't know if the Grammy should happen. And me and Harvey, Harvey Mason Jr., who runs the Recording Academy, who employs me to produce the show. We were both like, we really think we can do something good on this show. And Jeffrey called me, and Jeffrey's like one of my favourite people in the world. And he called me and he said, like, why don't we think about doing something on television with musicians for the fires? This was before Fire Aid had been announced and Irving's thing. He said, I really think that you'd be the right person to pull it together, get the artists. We could find a network, we'd do the whole thing.

• 35:13Speaker 01

  And I said, I, I, literally, I was in our hotel room with all my bags around me. I said, Jeffrey, but to do that, you'd need X million dollars to put on an event. I've already got X million dollars on February the 2nd. It's the Grammys. You're also gonna need a network to like, put it on. And I was like, I've already got that, it's CBS. You'd also need people to watch it, and that's hard, but it's called the Grammys, so people will watch it. And you'd also need to get Beyonce and Taylor and Billy and Gaga and Bruno and Olivia Rodrigo in a room. Yeah. And I've already got that, it's called the Grammys. I was like, why would we do something for that? Why not just make this, that? And, and that's what, like, we needed to do. And it was a crazy, high-wire act for you to do, because at the one time you're going, please welcome Sabrina Carpenter.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  But the other time you're saying, go to this QR code and help these people. Yeah. And, and I think it's, it was an impossible job that you did unbelievably, unbelievably well. So much so that I want you to know something that I only found out about an hour ago.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  During the telecast, just during the telecast, there was donations of over eight and a half million dollars. Altogether, it's been nine, just over nine. It's twenty four million for all the weekends events at the Grammys. But just during the telecast is nine million, uh, is eight and a half million. What is fascinating about that, that I literally just found out a minute ago in my office, is the average donation of that was less than fifty bucks. So what happened was the biggest donation from people at home was a thirty, then it was a ten, and then it was a five. That's the three donations. Everything else was beneath that level. Which what that means is hundreds of thousands of people were watching the show and watching you go, there's a QR code.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  And they were donating five, ten, twenty, enough that we raised eight million just from those donations. That's because you'd think if you raised eight million, that's a hundred grand here, that's half a million there. Of course, you know, like, but that's not, no corporate sponsors, that's not including the artists that add up to that twenty four. It's just people at home. And like, that's because you successfully, and I'm not just blowing smoke up your arse. But like, that's because you successfully and like, seismically changed, like, people to do that. People to go up to their screen and get their phone and then type in a code rather than just watching TV and enjoying the Grammys.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  That's because you did it really well. And so it was a high wire act, but I knew that I needed you hugely. Because without you, it would have been impossible to get the excitement and the joy and allow somebody to stand there and win a Grammy. To also have someone who loves and understands music, but fundamentally to get the tone right so that we could go from, I love LA, or the firemen coming on stage, or the commercials for the businesses, or all the other, or the choir that sung with Stevie Wonder from schools that are burnt down, all those bits that we'd come up with. You had to get us through them and at the same time make a joke about, I don't know, alligator bites. Right, right. And that was needed. So my big, I've talked for too long, I'm sorry. No, what do you mean? This is the podcast. We have something about the Grammys. You're the Grammys guy. What do you mean? But I freaked out. Do you not know this?

• 38:13Speaker 01

  I don't know anything. I'm, I'm waiting to hear it. All right. So it was the week of the fires, which was January the seventh or eighth. And me and Harvey are, and with Raj and Jesse, who also I should credit them, they're also execs on the show. We decide we're gonna go ahead with the show. So we make this announcement, we're going ahead with the show. And I'm like, great, we're going ahead. And I start planning it and I'm start thinking of all these ideas. And I'm like, and then Trevor could do this and like, oh, and then Trevor could start like this. And then he could like unveil the photo of doors. And I'm just thinking of all of it and like really, and I'm phoning all the artists. Cause they all wanna know that it's gonna be okay.

• 38:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 38:49Speaker 01

  They all wanna know that they're not walking into like, so I, I went around each one, not each one of them, not all of them. But like a lot of them like wanted a call to understand what we were doing. And I reassured them instantly and they could feel, oh, there's love here and like, it's gonna be okay. And it got to like the 12th of January or 13th of January. I don't know the exact dates, but it was like, you know. And Eric Cook, the co-E P, uh, who sort of runs the budget, comes into my office and he says, um. He says, when, uh, we still haven't got Trevor's contract signed. When are you announcing Trevor? And I went.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  I went, oh, um. We haven't announced Trevor. And he's like, no, I was like, why haven't we announced Trevor? He's like, I don't know, we've never announced Trevor. I was like, I had no idea we hadn't announced you as the host. Because we, you and I are, I would say, very close friends.

• 39:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  And I just, we just assume we're doing it together.

• 39:46Trevor Noah?

  Hey, man.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  We're just, I, I don't even, so here's a funny thing about me though.

• 39:49Trevor Noah?

  I just assume he's it. No, but here's a funny thing, I'm the opposite. Cesar will even tell you this. I don't assume anything. So even when they ask me, are you doing the Grammys? I say, and it's the truth, I go, they'll let me know if they want me. But until then.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  No, but we did have a comp, no, but we'd already.

• 40:06Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, but what I'm saying is with the fires and I'm saying with all of the, so I'm still going like, hey, man, I don't. And this, this guy's known me, we're on like 20 something years now. Cesar knows me, I take nothing for granted. I always assume that I will be fired or can be fired.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Right.

• 40:20Trevor Noah?

  Anything in life can change. And I don't even have like, I'm like baby faced with most things.

• 40:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, you don't care.

• 40:25Trevor Noah?

  I turn around and I go.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  You are, you're very relaxed.

• 40:27Trevor Noah?

  You walk ahead. So for me, I was just sitting in South Africa, literally just being like, man, this is crazy. Is the Grammys happening or, but I, I don't even assume that I'm doing it, even though we've spoken. Cause I know you might call me and say, hey, listen, this year is different. We're gonna do a different thing. And so, oh yeah, I'm like.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  Okay, but I have in my head designed an entire show.

• 40:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, which I didn't know, by the way.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  Based with you at the helm.

• 40:49Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  Every element of it, from like the Gen Z commercial joke, I'd already got like a bit of that. Like the, the whole idea of like, everything was with you in my head. It wasn't, it didn't cross my mind for a second, you weren't doing the show. And then Eric went, well, no, we haven't announced him. So I was like, so I had this cold sweat come over my body. It was about, it was about like. You know, it must've been really early in the morning. Cause I remember, so then it was nine o'clock. That's right. So I call you, cause I'm panicking a little bit and it goes straight to answer phone. Then I called Rachel Rush, who's your agent, and it rang. Rachel Rush never doesn't pick up to me.

• 41:26Trevor Noah?

  No, it, it, it's Instapic.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  It's Instapic. She picks up instantly. And we've just announced, we're definitely going ahead with the Grammys. Rings and rings and rings. No texts going, I'll call you back. So then I called, then I call your manager, Norm. Nothing, literally nothing. No one picks up.

• 41:44Trevor Noah?

  Thought he was getting snubbed.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  I'm like, I am like heavy breathing. So then I'm like, all right, I haven't got Rachel. I haven't got Trevor. I haven't got Norm. Derek will pick up. Derek will pick up. So then Derek, I pick, I ring him, nothing. Five minutes later, on Zoom, can I call back later in the day? That's far too formal for me, Derek.

• 42:05Trevor Noah?

  That is funny.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Then Rachel Rush texts me and goes, Rachel Rush texts me, this is now like nine forty five. Rachel Rush takes me going, sorry, sorry, I had a missed call. Been in meetings. We'll make sure we speak later in the day. And I am like, so I try you again. I try you again. I'm like, oh my God. Try, try you again. No answer. These are four people who I know your listeners wouldn't necessarily know, but four people who pick up. My call and like a friend of mine.

• 42:34Trevor Noah?

  What's funny is what I'm experiencing just from, cause I don't know anyone else's story. But for me, when this was all happening, I was in South Africa and I specifically decided that I'm gonna take some time away from digital devices and I like made a whole thing. I was, then I wrote to one of my friends. I said to, I said to one of my friends, I was like, hey, I'm, I think I'm gonna send this out as sort of an out of office to everyone, just to be like, hey, I'm staying away from my phone. If you, then he was like, calm down. He's like, you're not a doctor. You're not a lawyer. Nobody needs you like that.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Dude.

• 43:04Trevor Noah?

  And then he said, if someone needs to get ahold of you, they'll find you through your people. So relax. So I was like, all right. Literally my phone for maybe 10 days was just maybe look in the morning, maybe look at night and that was it.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  Well, I was having an utter freak out.

• 43:18Trevor Noah?

  I'm sorry, my friend.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  So, so, so, so I'm also going, all four of them are on a zoom right now. It's nine in the morning. They've read the announcement that we're going ahead and they are discussing how Trevor thinks it's not a good idea. And I'm also annoyed at myself, genuinely annoyed myself. And it was bad producing. I did, I made an, I made, I made a genuine mistake. Being serious, I actually learned from this and you don't even know about it. The, in my head, I think of us as kind of a unit, like I, in a lovely way.

• 43:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I'm with you.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  In that like, I just thought, oh, Trevor will be fine with all of this.

• 43:47Trevor Noah?

  Right, okay, I'm with you.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  This is great. And I was so annoyed at myself that we had made an announcement, not with your name in it, that the Grammys was happening and I hadn't picked up the phone to you and gone, do you think that's all right? Is that okay with you? Will you still do it? Because if you had said, I don't wanna do it, I don't think I would have gone ahead and I, we might have gone ahead. I'm not saying you're bigger than the Grammys. But I would have said, Harvey, I need to find a host that can manage what we're about to do before we go ahead. I can't, we can't announce we're doing it until I know who's gonna be the voice of like our ideas and our vision and whatever. And I was so angry at myself because it's a real bull drop for me and I, and as you all know, I'm like quite detailed.

• 44:23Trevor Noah?

  I had no emotion. I'm sorry that you went through all of this.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  So I called a meeting with my staff.

• 44:27Trevor Noah?

  I was skipping through the grass, enjoying a mountain.

• 44:31Speaker 01

  Where the hell were Norm, Derek and Rachel? So I called a meeting with my staff with Patrick and, and Raj. And we called in and they all, it was about 10:30 that morning. I said, I've got, I, I've just got. Something in my stomach I have to share with all of you. Trevor's out. I think Trevor's out. I swear to God. The room, it was the most morbid room. Everyone was like, oh my God. I was like, I've, I said I effed up. I was like, I didn't, I don't know what's happened. I might be able to talk him back in. I was spiraling. I don't know what was going on with me. I'm this like together guy. That is very out of character. But I was like, there was so much at stake for me with this show.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Okay, that makes sense. I put my heart and soul into this Grammys, partly because like I love the Grammys now. I've just decided it's like, it's my baby now. I've done it five years and I love it and I love the love it gets and, and I love, I'm a proper music fan, so I love that. And I just like telly and the challenge of it. And I've, and the LA thing evacuated and I was proud.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  And now LA's home and now you're fighting for it. We can raise money. And I was like, this is so idiotic. I mean, I'm a trigger. Anyway, no one takes me back. Still, it's now like 11:30 and no one has called me. So I know I'm screwed. Because no one's called me back and it's, and it's like. You've got to admit, that does sound very weird. It does. It's bad. It's bad. And I'm like, and maybe they're annoyed I didn't check and whatever. And I knew that like Norman had friends who'd lost houses and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they were all probably like, we shouldn't do the show. And Rachel's a very sensitive person as well. So she might have thought, I could see how all of them could say to you in some way. I could see how all of them could go, no, I'm not sure it is the right thing for you right now. I could see the Zoom that I wasn't on at 9am. It didn't exist.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  So then my phone goes, everyone's in the room. It's about midday. My phone goes and it says Trevor Noah. I'm like, oh fuck.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  For the first time, it was like, it was like a girlfriend telling me if I was gonna get a second date. I became this pathetic kid. So I'm like, okay, guys, guys, give me the room. Give me the room. Give me the room. Everyone, give me the room. You know, so everyone files out the room going, good luck, good luck, good luck. And I'm like, and I'm literally like, hello, hello. Hi, hi. Hi, hi, just be strong. Hello. Okay. Pick up the phone. You, within a mi- I was like, hey, man, how are you? You're like, good, I'm just in South Africa. How are you doing? I was like, I'm good. Everything okay with you? Yeah, just having a break with my mom. And literally, I was like, what an idiot am I? I've spent the whole morning crying over this disaster. And I was like, I just.

• 46:57Trevor Noah?

  I didn't know there was a disaster on your end.

• 46:59Speaker 01

  I was pretending to be so cool. I've never been as uncool in my life. And I was like, so I've got a few ideas for the, you know, the Grammys. At some point, we should talk about it. You're like, yeah, yeah, at some point, we should just, yeah, whenever, like, you know, I'm around. I'm back in L A next week. Let's talk then. Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

• 47:16Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's funny. Meanwhile, we had the opposite, because obviously the fire has happened.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:21Trevor Noah?

  Now, we're wondering what's going to happen, how are you going to do it? How are people going to do it? Everyone's trying to figure out the semblance of normalcy that they can attain during a disaster like this. And then you.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  Initially, we thought they were going to get cancelled.

• 47:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, we thought it was going to get cancelled. And then it was you who said to me, you had like no doubt in Ben being able to pull it off, funny enough.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  I didn't have a doubt, and it's for two reasons, right? So I've obviously, I've worked with you guys for like four years now, seen how you guys do your thing. And I know the chemistry you have, right? Um, the first time in Vegas, I was familiar with your work.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:55Speaker 02

  But I obviously had never seen you deliver. And after that year, I even told him, I said, this is the right person for you. Like, I've never seen an on-air chemistry like what you guys have. And I might have been saying this because you, yeah, right, like he'll know. Um, so when you guys decided, you put out the announcement, even on Instagram. And funny enough, I sent you a D M and my response was like a fire emoji, which I then thought, well, I probably shouldn't have done that.

• 48:20Trevor Noah?

  That's the wrong emoji.

• 48:21Speaker 01

  I was sat in my house with two hoses, but I appreciate it.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, but.

• 48:27Speaker 02

  I was a hundred percent sure you'd be able to pull it off. I just knew that the tone of the show had to be different.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 48:33Speaker 02

  Which is what we initially discussed.

• 48:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:34Speaker 02

  And then everything from that point on.

• 48:37Speaker 01

  Did you ever, was, so my instinct was obviously wrong. As in like you hadn't, you weren't pulling out.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  No.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  But did you ever consider, actually, maybe I shouldn't be hosting it this year? I don't, or I don't want the challenge of it this year. Or you know what, maybe this isn't for me. Did it cross your mind at any point? Or you were just as easygoing as you made out to me on the phone?

• 48:56Trevor Noah?

  Okay, let's, let's take a break. I'll think about it. I'll think about it and then I'll, I'll, I'll give you the answer to that.

• 49:06Trevor Noah?

  So I want to take a moment to talk about ZipRecruiter. No matter what job you're searching for or hiring for, ZipRecruiter can help. Today, we're talking about the Grammys. And if you just think about a show like that, it's incredible, the number of very specific jobs that go into putting it all together. You know, it's actually funny. Speaking of jobs, you and I basically met through jobs.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 49:27Trevor Noah?

  Right? And you and I met on a production set, basically. Like I was doing, you know, the kids' show. You were doing, what were you doing at the time? MTV?

• 49:38Speaker 02

  MTV stuff, yeah.

• 49:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, so you're doing MTV. And so you go there day one. And what do you expect?

• 49:43Speaker 02

  Well, I didn't really have an expectation because how I got my job was via like an open audition.

• 49:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  So literally everything was a learning experience. And just, you know, okay, what do you do? Then they'll tell you, then you move on. Okay, what do you do? What's your role? How does it all fit together to then create the big production?

• 49:59Trevor Noah?

  That's probably the most mind blowing part of a production is how many people need to come together to make it happen. Like I speak to people all the time who'll say to me, hey, Trevor, I want to work in entertainment. Then I go, doing what? And they're like, what do you mean, doing what? I'm like, doing what? There's literally everything in entertainment. You know, I remember when I discovered there's somebody whose job it is to make sure that the cables that are on the cameras don't get tangled up.

• 50:25Speaker 02

  The cable basher.

• 50:26Trevor Noah?

  Yo, and like, that's one of the most important people on the job. Like running along the sidelines at the NFL or, you know, at a live show like the Grammys or you name it. Like that person's job is just to make sure that the cables don't get tangled so that you at home don't miss the shot, you know?

• 50:40Speaker 02

  I've always wondered, what's the first boy grip? I've always read that since I was a kid and I was like, I wonder what a first boy grip is. Like, what is that?

• 50:50Trevor Noah?

  It's the grip that is most important?

• 50:55Speaker 02

  My worst boy.

• 50:56Trevor Noah?

  Hey, man. This is why you need like hiring site because I mean, how many jobs are there? Do you know what I mean? Like, think about it. Everyone thinks of a cameraman.

• 51:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:06Trevor Noah?

  When a movie is being made or when a show is being created on live TV, do you know how many different people are making that camera work? You know what I mean? You watch something, you think two people were having a conversation. You don't know behind them, there were 200 people making it look like it was just two people having a conversation. And all of those roles need people.

• 51:27Speaker 02

  And they need to be filled. You need to know where to go and find them.

• 51:30Trevor Noah?

  And that's where ZipRecruiter comes in. Every day ZipRecruiter helps 10 million candidates with their job search, which means no matter the role or industry, they can help your business find qualified candidates fast. And when they say no matter the role or industry, they really mean it. Whether you need to find that one person, that one employee for your small business, or staff for a big event, you can see for yourself by going to ziprecruiter.com/trevor. With smart matching technology and handy tools like the invite to apply feature, you'll find a potential hire in no time. ZipRecruiter is the hiring site employers prefer most, based on G2. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. See for yourself. Try it now for free at ziprecruiter.com/trevor.

• 52:13Trevor Noah?

  That's ziprecruiter.com/trevor. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire.

• 52:25Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so 2024 is coming to a close. I've been on tour almost for two years. This is like me finally wrapping things up. I put on a few extra shows in New York, at the Beacon, the Comedy Cellar, at a little theater downtown, at the Soho Theatre. And then I decided I'm going to go to South Africa for Christmas. I'm going to go spend time with my mom. And then I'll spend New Year's in South Africa and Johannesburg, which I don't regularly do with my friends, Sizwe, Anneli, everyone. We normally travel. And then I decide, you know what, I'm just gonna spend time at home doing like nothing and just chill. Just get back to home vibes. So I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, having a wonderful time.

• 53:07Trevor Noah?

  While we're there, the news comes out about LA. And it's the same news that always comes out every year. There are wildfires in LA. Now, it's not diminished by the fact that it always happens. But you, you always think to yourself, oh yeah, they got it, man. They always, they always got it. It can get a little out of hand, but they've got it. They've got it, they've got it. Then the fires grow. And the fires grow, they keep growing, they keep growing. Now you hear about evacuation orders. And now we're reading this secondhand, we're not in LA. You know, so all you get is the news clip slash a few videos online. Then the fires jump. Then the fires expand. And now we're like, wow, it looks like the whole city is burned. Now, personal friends start texting me. Or like my manager, um, and my agent, Matt Lake.

• 53:51Trevor Noah?

  Literally, his house gone, like gone, gone, ashes. No, but you, so now you start getting direct people going, hey, man, house gone. Hey, house gone, hey, house gone. And now you're like, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. Everyone, how far is this thing getting? Now you're like, oh, everyone is gonna be involved in this. It's not, it's not, it's not like a few people who live near to the boundary, which is normally how it is. It's everyone. So I'm experiencing this, but it's not about me. So I'm just like, I hope everyone's okay. And whenever there's a tragedy, I hate being the person who's texting people. Because I feel like I don't need you to reply to my text while shit's going wrong in your life. So I'll text you afterwards, because my text doesn't necessarily help you. You know what I mean? So I'm, I'm quiet, I'm spending time off my devices. We go, we see things are being canceled, moved, et cetera. I go, Caesar, what do you think's gonna happen?

• 54:36Trevor Noah?

  He's like, I don't know. But if, you know, if anything happened, they'll let you know. I'm like, all right, we'll see. Are the Grammys still happening? We don't know, we don't know, we don't know. Grammys gets announced. The Grammys are happening, but they say nothing about me. So I'm like, oh, okay, I guess there's gonna be a shift, it's fine. Then I go, Caesar, you saw the Grammys is happening? Caesar goes instantly, he's like, yeah. He's like, Ben can pull it off. I know he can. He always, he'll figure it out, he, he always pulls it off. So I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, Ben will do, I don't know how he's gonna do it, but he'll do something. Cool. And I'm fine, I'm just living my life. We speak on the phone. The only doubts I had were doubts around. So I'll start with this. Number one, to what James said, and what anyone who's hosted an award show will know. You know, like, I remember, like,

• 55:22Trevor Noah?

  Talking to Kevin Hart about it, I've talked to Chris Rock about it, you name it.

• 55:27Trevor Noah?

  Hosting a show is one of the more thankless things you can do. Yep. Right? And not thankless like, oh, I need the thanks, but it's just because it's such a high wire act, even if there's nothing bad happening in the world. You step onto a stage where people haven't come for you. And you then do the thing that you do, which is already precarious. Comedy is not a safe art form. Full stop. Like, just even people who are coming to a comedy club. There's a possibility the comedy doesn't go the way they want it to. For a comedian, it's not a safe art form. No comedian's like, ah, what a lovely, easy job I have, right? So you start with that.

• 56:08Trevor Noah?

  Then, an award show where people are coming for music is not even like the Emmys and the Oscars, where people are, you know, used to sitting down, having people talk all night. No, the music speaks at the Grammys. You know, there's very little speaking at the Grammys. So I, I, I, I have my latent doubts about doing the Grammys. I roll to the Grammys because of you, you know what I mean? This, literally from the beginning, I was like, look, I don't like award shows. I would never do an award show. But I roll with you and I trust you to keep me safe and to try and put the best show on. And I love making people feel good. Now the fires are happening. I go, okay, so I've already got the doubts I had. But now, what are you, are you throwing a party while everyone's having a funeral? What are you doing? How mu- how bad is the devastation? Are you assuming devastation on their behalf?

• 56:52Trevor Noah?

  Because that's another thing I've realized we do quite a lot in society these days is, we assume things on other people's behalves that they themselves aren't experiencing. Babyface is a good example. Babyface wasn't pissed off. People were pissed off. How dare you? But the man that you are daring on behalf of is like, no, I get it, man. It's part of the game, relax. People get offended on, you know, a place's behalf. People get offended, people, we, we do that. And sometimes we do it, I think most of the time, we try and do it out of good.

• 57:21Trevor Noah?

  But the intention doesn't match up with the with the outcome, right? So I I didn't wanna make the assumption and be like, no, I cannot do the Grammys at this tough time. I cannot, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what about the people who've worked for you on their music? What about the people who've like, prepared for you to work on the Grammys? What about the people, and I spend most of my time with these guys. I'm chatting to, you know, the the stagehand backstage. I'm being ushered around, you know, by by the crew. I I'm I'm building bonds with the the cameraman because you you know what it's like, Caesar, when you've hosted. That's the thing. These are the people that you're doing most of it with. So I'm not in a position to assume anything. I just go, I will work with what is given to me.

• 58:05Trevor Noah?

  But what I thought from the get go, even when I came to L A, was, man, this is gonna be hard. And this is gonna be hard because

• 58:17Trevor Noah?

  half the people who are here have a feeling of sadness that they're carrying. It's mixed in with resilience, but it's still sadness. The other half have some sort of reverence for what everyone is experiencing. But they've come into town, but they also don't wanna be the people with confetti and streamers. So every normal pre Grammy party was canceled. Every after party was canceled. There was no Spotify party. There was no C A A party. There was no Warner Music Party. There's nothing. There's nothing. So the preamble feels different. People feel different. You know, you, the first time you're gonna put something nice on is just to go to the show. That's that's not usual.

• 58:59Trevor Noah?

  And then on top of that, you realize that the audience isn't having the same feelings depending on where they are. Someone's watching in South Africa. Yep. They're not having the same feeling. Somebody's watching in London. They're not having the same feeling. They're happy for Ray, you know? And then someone's watching from Australia, and then someone's watching from... But these people are like, oh, yeah, we know that there is a fire. But also, when we had a fire, you didn't do the thing, so we're having a different feeling. And I was watching this online, I was seeing people, so I didn't, I didn't assume anything, but I knew, for me personally, I was like, this is probably gonna be my least favorite Grammys. Because whatever happens, I will be doing something wrong.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  But was it your least favorite in the end?

• 59:40Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, easily.

• 59:41Speaker 01

  Right. Just because you were worried about that high line of how you were, just because you couldn't be loose?

• 59:47Trevor Noah?

  So, not even loose, so it's like, and when I say least favorite, I'm using, you know, like favorite the way you use it for fun.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Your experience, you don't mean least favorite as in the show, you mean your experience.

• 59:57Trevor Noah?

  But for me, as Trevor,

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:59Trevor Noah?

  This was the most stressful, most high wire, most, because I, I don't want anyone who's experiencing this disaster to feel like I'm minimizing it, because I'm not. I literally have some of my people in the audience,

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:00:14Trevor Noah?

  where we, we've experienced a collective loss, so even on a personal level, it's not like strangers, I'm like, I want you to think, you know? But then you know there's someone who's watching going like, oh, really? What, I just tuned in for a funeral? Because it is a celebration. And I always think that's the paradox of life. One of the hardest paradoxes of life to, to accept is that in the same hospital where somebody's dying, a baby's just been born.

• 1:00:36Trevor Noah?

  Literally, just like a few hallways away, someone is cheering, and then in another hallway, people are crying, because they've had the exact opposite experience. But what do you do? Do you say the hospital is all sad, or do you say no balloons? Or do you say no crying? Like, what, what do you do? And that, that's, that's what it felt like coming in. And so, even doing the show, you saw, it's like, we were like, what jokes would work or wouldn't work, or what do we say or not say? This is when I knew the room was different. This is the first Grammys I've done where everyone was sat before the show started.

• 1:01:09Trevor Noah?

  That's when I knew this was gonna be a weird, different vibe. I didn't know which way the vibe would go, but I've never done a Grammys, other than Covid, but that was different. I've never done a Grammys where everyone is sat.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  You mean, because usually it's the mayhem that they're arriving.

• 1:01:21Speaker 02

  And they're very jubilant.

• 1:01:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Taylor Swift's walking, "Nice to see you!", and you know, that table, and that table, and, and someone's over there.

• 1:01:28Speaker 01

  But do you think that's because we started it with, with you talking about devastation?

• 1:01:31Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, but they were seated.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:34Trevor Noah?

  Regardless of what, I know what you mean.

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:36Trevor Noah?

  But they were in their seats. They weren't, people are normally walking in. You know, the rappers are there, "Oh, Busta Rhymes is in the corner, eh, what's going on, baby fa-"

• 1:01:44Speaker 02

  There's usually a party in everybody's dressing room.

• 1:01:46Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  There was none of that.

• 1:01:48Trevor Noah?

  There was none of that.

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  But there was by the end of the show. Yes.

• 1:01:51Trevor Noah?

  Yes, but it wasn't a party. It was a, it was, it was the feeling that you have after a funeral or awake. It was, it was a feeling where most of the feelings that people had had had been addressed. So you know, when you, when you're applying a bomb to a burn wound, there is a feeling of relief that comes with it that allows you to not feel burnt for a moment. Like Kendrick and his acceptance speech was a, that was a love letter to LA. Kendrick may have made the same acceptance speech where the fires not there, but I don't think he would have, you know? Now he's like, he's talking about his love for each and every part of those, every city. It wasn't just Compton now.

• 1:02:32Trevor Noah?

  It was him going, yo, man, Pasadena and, you know, Santa Monica and he's like, all of this is part of me. Every single artist who got up and said something about something became part of the bomb that soothed the night and the show. So I think the feeling we experienced at the end with Beyonce standing up there, I've never seen Beyonce that emotional.

• 1:02:54Trevor Noah?

  Never.

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Did you think that was because of what happened in Los Angeles?

• 1:02:59Trevor Noah?

  I think it's, I think it's because of everything.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  Winning an album.

• 1:03:02Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, no. I think it's.

• 1:03:03Speaker 01

  Like people saw Billie Eilish crying when Beyonce was up on stage and lots of people have said to me, why do you think she was crying? And it's, it's really interesting. It's like, I think it could have just been the emotion of the night. But I mean, it could have been anything from being happy to see Beyonce. Some people were saying, oh, she's sad that she's lost and that's why she's crying. I was like, oh my God, you don't know this girl. Yeah, you don't know Billie Eilish. She's like the nicest person. You don't know Billie then. There is no, like she is just the most exceptional human being. But I, I actually think, I, I think what set her off, if I had to guess.

• 1:03:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  And again, I don't know. I, I really don't know. I don't know her that well, but I think it was the firemen. I actually think the moment of those firemen coming out because the fires were so close to her and, and whatever. I think those.

• 1:03:41Trevor Noah?

  That's interesting.

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  Firemen made that moment emotional and, and like, I wanted to do the firemen for album. I knew straight away, I was like, we have to get firemen to give out album because that's, because that is the biggest, that's the Celine Dion moment that we had last year. It's, you know. It's special. It's who you'd get. If it wasn't the fires, you'd be asking Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger. And so the idea that you get 20 firefighters and you play some emotive music and you come out, I actually think that. Was a real period or a full stop at the end of the show. Because it was like, we've done all these bits, let's support these local businesses, let's have this like Gaga Bruno performance. And then at the end, you just see like this powerful twenty firemen giving out this historic moment that was to Beyonce that made it even more historic. It's the thing that people have been begging for for however many years and it's a group of firefighters.

• 1:04:27Speaker 01

  And I loved your line about this is the easiest job they'll ever have to do. Just give out an award. It's a wonderful line. I loved it. And yeah, I just thought that might have led to the emotion. It was like the person who they grew up loving in Beyonce, someone like Billy. And you've got the firefighters there and the night's gone like it's it's been a lovely night. Music's brought people together and I thought maybe that was why there was so much emotion in the room, but I don't know.

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  I think it was a combination of everything, actually.

• 1:04:50Speaker 01

  Because you were seated you were seated in the room, so you were on that table. Yeah, so you seated there, you're not, yeah.

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  Even before the show started, so if you go back and you listen to everything that leads up to Grammy weekend, right? The pre-parties and so on, that's the energy, the vibrancy of the city as the energy. And not that the city wasn't vibrant, but things were very different from, I'd say Wednesday onwards, and that was evident. In the first writing meeting, we already agreed that the tone of the show would have to be different.

• 1:05:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:20Speaker 02

  Not to say that the show's gonna be sad, but we're observing a moment.

• 1:05:23Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:05:24Speaker 02

  And then by the time you get to the actual show, everything that you're saying, it ends up being bigger than the sum of its parts. Um, so yes, Beyonce is emotional because it is a very big moment. But also, you're correct, the people that do hand over the award to her.

• 1:05:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:38Speaker 02

  Do make it even that much more amplified. So I think it was just, it was all of that coming together and it ended up being beautiful in a way. Because if you look at the reviews now, when people speak about the show holistically, they're saying best Grammys in however many years. Because that's really what TV is about, that roller coaster of emotion is actually quite good sometimes. If you can cry this one moment, but also end up crying because you joyful and you happy that Beyonce finally clinched the award.

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:07Speaker 02

  That's what makes it beautiful. Um, so it ultimately worked out.

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, the emotion went, it was it was really amazing. Because like the firefighters were backstage, man, they were a great group, like just like, just, you know, because what I appreciated, what you did there with them was.

• 1:06:23Trevor Noah?

  We do a good job of calling on people to help us when we need the help. We forget that they're people as well. Hmm. Do you know what I mean? So we call them firefighters, but they're people. Yeah. And it was cool to meet the people who are firefighters backstage. Yeah. And just see them like laughing and talking shit. So I was talking to, I was talking to one of the, um, one of the pilots who flies the helicopters. And he like runs the command of all of them. And he has to manage the airspace, you know, like choreograph what the planes are doing, what the helicopters are doing so that they don't crash. Cause you have to wait for the one to go by before the other one can come so that they can drop the water and do the thing. You know what I mean? It's, it's complicated, but you need the water to be coming as quickly as possible. You've got them picking up at the reservoir. So he's telling me this, we're talking about it, we're having, but then, and they epitomize the paradox of, of humanity.

• 1:07:06Trevor Noah?

  Because on the one hand, he's, he's going, yeah, man, this thing was crazy. And he's like, man, but this was so great. Thank you for having us and I can't believe this. And he's like, and Beyonce took a selfie with, she took a selfie with every firefighter backstage, by the way. Did she? Let me tell you something like. She even thanked them before she accepted the award. You noticed that, right? Yeah. She, by the way, not just thanked them. Beyonce took the award from both, like there were two people. She took the award from one, hugged both, looked at both in the eye. And I know some people like, man, what's, what's the big deal with that? For me, those are like some of the moments where I appreciate the humanity of someone more. Because when you've won album of the year, it is a lot easy, it's easy. Anyone who's won an award will know, you, you, you blackout. Yeah. Like I don't judge anymore.

• 1:07:49Trevor Noah?

  I remember when, when I won the Emmy, every thought I had before that, you've experienced this. The first time especially, or the like, and it was Beyonce's first time. You blackout. You think you know everything before you come in there and they say your name, your mouth goes a little dry. You, you go, wait, what? Wait, wait, wait, wait. And she had the, the humanity, I wouldn't even say the presence of mind to go, I see you, I see you. Like it felt very African to me. And then she like, then she started with them. And then for me, what was great was seeing it carry on backstage. Hmm. She like took selfies with the, and this is like, you know, as an artist, you don't want to be taking a selfie when you've been crying a little bit and your makeup isn't great, the lighting is not, no, Beyonce took all the selfies. That's great. The light was terrible backstage. These people, and she was talking to everybody and laughing and we're there and we're there.

• 1:08:34Trevor Noah?

  It's like crying, laughing. It, it felt like the full encapsulation of what the night was about. Which is what LA feels like it's going through as a place. And which is what every place that goes through disaster feels like, right? You have the shock of the event happening. You have the the moment where everyone wonders like how bad it's gonna get or how far it will go. And then from that, in the most cliched way, you start noticing little sprouts of hope. And then you start seeing resilience and you see the first smile and the first hug and the first, you know. And and I think that for me, even on a on a personal level, was a beautiful encapsulation of all of it. And I think, I can't speak for her,

• 1:09:20Trevor Noah?

  but I think that's what Beyonce was feeling as well. Remember, man, she didn't get she didn't get nominated at the Country Music Awards. No. Imagine what it's what it feels like for Beyonce. Yeah. You dabble in this thing called country. Now, people think you're dabbling. People don't know how much she loves and grew up on country. You know what I mean? She's a proper Texas girl, proper. You do this thing, and then Country Music Awards go, nah, you didn't even do it to us. Never mind, like, winning. You didn't even do it. And you're like, damn, you know? And then here you are in another award show, and you go, all right, well, I don't know. I don't know what will happen. As an artist, you might have made a terrible mistake. And so I think it's a culmination of everything. It's the room, it's the night, it's the people, it's the journey.

• 1:10:06Trevor Noah?

  It's her personal journey. It's it's all of it. And I think everyone else in the room felt that for her and for everything. Because we want to live in a world where there's a happy ending. We all want that. That's not life, unfortunately. But we all want that. And in a way, that felt like the happy ending. It's the craziest sentence a human being can ever say, but it was like, it was amazing that the underdog won. You know, and it's wild to say like Beyonce was the underdog, but that's what it felt like in the room. Right. Whether it was Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish or or Shaboozie or, you know, Busta Rhymes or, you know, Janelle Monae or you name it. People were like, damn, she did it. And I know people are like, yeah, but it's Beyonce. It's like, no, no, no. But still,

• 1:10:50Trevor Noah?

  in the same way Superman at the end of the movie, we go, ah, he got out from hell, under that building that Zod smashed him with. That's what it felt like. It's like we've been on this journey. And that was, yeah, it was a, it was just like a magical real moment to be part of.

• 1:11:05Speaker 01

  Did the atmosphere in the room, because obviously you're hosting it, I'm in a truck in the, in the parking lot, basically, with all the cameras.

• 1:11:13Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, you're disconnected in a weird way.

• 1:11:14Speaker 01

  I'm sort of in the most connected and also the most disconnected, and I'm across at every element in some ways, but then you're not, you're trying to just protect. But the feeling in the room, what was the feeling in the room when Kendrick won? What was the feeling in the room when Beyonce won? And did the, did the, did the room change during the night? He, he, I, I think at the beginning, everyone was like, how are we supposed to be? But I do feel like at the end, there was just a love in there and it was a real warmth.

• 1:11:38Speaker 02

  Hundred percent, it did. So in the beginning, as you correctly point out, people are kind of looking for permission to act a certain way. But they don't know how to act until you give them that direction, right? And so in the opening of the show, I think quickly people were there to celebrate artists and music, obviously it's music's biggest night. But you made them observe a moment initially and they're like, okay, cool, we with that. And then slowly the show started to open up with the performances, obviously the production, et cetera, and so on. And people started to feel good about it. Now, when you mentioned Kendrick, I can tell you right now, everybody, when the Kendrick announcement, well, because it happened twice.

• 1:12:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:16Speaker 02

  In the live show, not the three awards he won before. Both those instances, when Kendrick won, I think everybody in the building was happy for him. Everybody was happy.

• 1:12:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, they were.

• 1:12:28Speaker 02

  Uh, to the point where they literally sang along to Not Like Us until he stepped on stage.

• 1:12:37Speaker 02

  I'm a huge Drake fan, I was incensed.

• 1:12:40Trevor Noah?

  Are you?

• 1:12:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:12:41Trevor Noah?

  No, and he is, he is.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:12:42Speaker 02

  Caesar was like, Caesar was like, what is this? When the crowd chanted in unison, hey, minor!

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  I mean, wow.

• 1:12:50Speaker 02

  But you were personally hurt.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  But also you're seeing like the biggest icons in the world doing it.

• 1:12:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, no.

• 1:12:56Speaker 01

  Like you're not just seeing the crowd doing it, you're seeing, I had all the cameras and you see Taylor and Beyonce and they're all singing along, it's.

• 1:13:03Trevor Noah?

  Let me tell you something, that, that moment was so big that the only texts I've gotten other than congratulations on a Grammys. The, the next number of texts that I've gotten from people, without fail, the largest number is. This, I'll, like, basically, I'll try and sum them all up in one sentence. One of my friends wrote in the best way, he said, huh, this was a tough night for you light skins, huh?

• 1:13:28Trevor Noah?

  That's what, that's what people all texted me, are you okay? I was like, what do you mean, I'm okay? They're like, yo, yo, that hit Drake so hard, I feel like it sort of spilled into you. Are you okay? I'm like, because it was such a, and it was organic, that was, because the room before that sort of was observing the night. That song elicited something in them where they forgot that they were

• 1:13:50Speaker 02

  They all participated.

• 1:13:51Trevor Noah?

  And they were just like, ah, sad, sad, sad, A minor! But I mean, look, jokes aside, though.

• 1:13:57Speaker 01

  Do you think there was a turning point, or do you think it was?

• 1:13:58Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, it already started to warm up, yeah, it had started to warm up long before that. Well, what, where would you say the turning point is? I'm interested.

• 1:14:05Speaker 01

  I think the, the person who had the most difficult task all night, apart from you, because obviously you had to be in it together. I think we gave Sabrina Carpenter a really hard task.

• 1:14:13Trevor Noah?

  Yo, can I tell you?

• 1:14:14Speaker 01

  Yes. I can take, I can, I can unpack it. So, the thing I obsess about more than anything else, the thing I spend more time on than anything else is the running order. What I mean by that is like the order of everything, from like where you go, what award, how it, firstly, it's a logistical nightmare, because you've got to build one set while you're taking another one down, and you've got to time the other one so that this goes up while that goes down. It's like a crazy building process. But act one was Trevor setting the tone, a band, Doors, that had lost everything, and so therefore, a band, Doors, who had lost everything, and so therefore had, uh, uh, uh, it, almost like an excuse, it was like a beautiful moment where we were like seeing them and seeing, um, them experience, I think, opening the Grammys, which was really beautiful.

• 1:14:58Speaker 01

  Then you go in and we come to Trevor and you're doing your opening. Then Billie Eilish is on, literally on a background that got burnt down, but it's where she comes from, and it's a really beautiful song. Then we've got the commercials, which is helping local businesses. And then you get to top of act two, and Sabrina Carpenter has to sing about espresso, and she's doing it while she's doing a comedy act.

• 1:15:18Trevor Noah?

  It was a full-on comedy act.

• 1:15:19Speaker 01

  And that was the moment where it was like, okay, if we've done the work in part one, if all of those things, Trevor's intro, Doors, mono, but fundraising, let's go big on the fundraising, Billie Eilish, commercials, if those five things have worked, then Sabrina's gonna be okay, and this'll be great. If not, then everyone's gonna be like, why is she falling through the stairs? Do you not know what's going on in the world?

• 1:15:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:42Speaker 01

  Hashtag do better, all of that.

• 1:15:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:44Speaker 01

  And luckily, I think, because part one went really well, because you did really well, because Billie Eilish was incredible, because Doors was very moving. And fundamentally, Sabrina was unbelievably brilliant and funny and charming and like old school Hollywood glam and phenomenal like talent. That suddenly, everybody was up dancing. At the beginning of the song, they were not. By the end of the song, they were. By the time they got to chapel, everybody was up. And then from Benson, all the way from Benson to Dochi, to Teddy, to Shaboozie, to Ray, it was Carnage. Everywhere we looked, people were on their feet. And I was like, and that was the biggest moment for me. When we finished Best New Artist, I was like celebrating with Hamish, because I was like, actually, whatever happens from like the next hour and a half, two hours, like

• 1:16:28Speaker 01

  that was a really beautiful way of taking an audience that you were nervous about. And by the end of Ray, they're on their feet, like going, this is one of the best things we've seen. And so, yeah, that was, that was the moment. But Sabrina had to turn it.

• 1:16:39Speaker 02

  So now on that, because you've now reminded me of something that I observed, and I didn't speak to you about it, even after the show, right? You've mentioned about the different set changes. Obviously, you got stage left and stage right. During Sabrina's performance, she had the part where she's by the porch.

• 1:16:54Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:16:54Speaker 02

  And at the end, I think they're supposed to clear the porch so that you can drop the stage on the left.

• 1:17:00Speaker 01

  Correct, so Cardi.

• 1:17:00Speaker 02

  So that Cardi would come out of the performance. And I think there was a delay with clearing that. The stage couldn't drop fully. He delivered the link, and I think he had to buy like, it looked like 20 seconds.

• 1:17:11Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 1:17:12Speaker 02

  My question is, and I've seen these things happen, specifically with you, very, very special moments, that the viewer doesn't get to understand because they don't know what was meant to happen to begin with.

• 1:17:22Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 1:17:23Speaker 02

  And things will go wrong.

• 1:17:25Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:17:25Speaker 02

  In a major way.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:27Speaker 02

  I've never seen you, I've never heard you shout, I've never seen you lose your composure. Is that a matter of just experience, or is that how you are as a person?

• 1:17:35Speaker 01

  Well, that was Trevor's fault. That moment with Cardi. He doesn't know it, but that was Trevor's fault. I know his, the way he speaks. I know his pace that he speaks. So when I do a link, I time it out and I read it as Trevor's voice in my brain. And I time how long it's going to take to do the porch and for that to come down. I want you to go back and I want you to watch that. For some reason, and I have no idea why, somebody pressed times four on Trevor Noah. And you whizzed through this link. It didn't matter in any way. You whizzed through a link that you would never, ever whizz through before. I don't even remember what the link was, but you literally, okay, the fundraising on the thing. But here's somebody, Cardi B. And I was like, oh my God, what happened?

• 1:18:18Speaker 01

  And I, I had forgotten to go, hey, I'm gonna need you to read this as your normal human being voice. You whizzed through it and suddenly I was like, oh no, the porch isn't clear. So we just cut wide to seven. I, I, you know what? There's such big things in the show. I, I don't lose my cool at that. I'm also a bit like, what, the audience is gonna be so surprised that the porch has to be taken away? And that like, I'm also a bit like, it doesn't need, that is the least of our worries. The worry for me was best new artist and how we logistically did that. Cause that was impossible for Hamish and Hayley, our directing team, to do. But, but that moment was just like, well, one of those things didn't really bother me.

• 1:18:52Trevor Noah?

  I'll, I'll tell you why I went four times.

• 1:18:54Speaker 01

  Do you remember doing it?

• 1:18:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I'll tell you why, but I'll tell you after the break.

• 1:18:59Trevor Noah?

  Don't go anywhere, cause we got more What Now? after this. Some of the most interesting things you learn happen while you're doing something completely ordinary. Maybe you're cooking dinner while watching a history video. Maybe you're on a flight catching up on a long form interview. Or maybe you're trying to figure out how to fix something in your house. Because apparently owning a screwdriver means you're an electrician now.

• 1:19:21Trevor Noah?

  But you see, that's one of the things I love about YouTube Premium. I travel a lot, so I download videos before a flight. That way, I'm not leaving my entertainment in the hands of airplane wifi. Yeah, I've made that mistake before. You think you're gonna watch something in 4K and suddenly everyone's face is pixels. One of my favorite features is smart downloads. You see YouTube Premium can automatically download recommended videos for you based on what you already watch. So sometimes I'll get on a plane, I look at my phone, I'm like, ah, I didn't download anything. Then it's like, no, YouTube already thought about this. They packed entertainment for me in my little lunchbox. And with background play, I can lock my phone, switch apps, and whatever I'm watching just keeps on going.

• 1:20:05Trevor Noah?

  So if you like YouTube, you will love YouTube Premium. Sign up now for your free trial at youtube.com/premium. Terms apply. Cancel anytime. Therapy is one of those things lots of people talk themselves out of without even realizing it. Like it's too expensive or it's too overwhelming figuring out even where you're gonna start. But Rula is one way to make that first step feel a lot more doable, offering accessible, affordable therapy that fits your needs. Sign up in just a few minutes and get matched with a therapist who fits what you're looking for. Need to talk to someone quickly? Appointments are often available as soon as the next day.

• 1:20:47Trevor Noah?

  And with insurance, sessions average around a $15 copay. You can also see estimated costs upfront, so there's a lot more clarity going in. And in terms of outcomes, 93% of Rula patients report symptom improvement. If therapy's been sitting in the back of your mind, Rula is a pretty simple way to take that first step. So turn off the talk track that's keeping you from progress and head to rula.com. That's R U L A dot com to find a therapist the easy way.

• 1:21:19Speaker 03

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• 1:21:56Speaker 01

  What was the link?

• 1:21:57Trevor Noah?

  So the link you're talking about was

• 1:22:01Trevor Noah?

  coming out of Sabrina, going into the monologue, going into the table talk, moving around. So, as Sizwe says.

• 1:22:10Speaker 01

  No, it wasn't.

• 1:22:10Trevor Noah?

  No, wasn't there?

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  No, you were right about the first part. You came out of Sabrina.

• 1:22:14Trevor Noah?

  Came out of Sabrina.

• 1:22:15Speaker 01

  And you went, you did a whole thing about jokes, leave them to me.

• 1:22:19Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  But you did them under the applause, so that was done. You weren't going into a monologue.

• 1:22:22Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, this was coming out of Sabrina.

• 1:22:24Speaker 01

  Coming out of Sabrina into Cardi B.

• 1:22:26Trevor Noah?

  And then going into the.

• 1:22:28Speaker 01

  Just into going to best rap album. It was a small link, but you.

• 1:22:32Trevor Noah?

  So I can, okay, I can tell you, but I can tell you what the feeling was. So, one of the biggest unknowns coming into this show was where would the audience be? Right? How many people are in that room?

• 1:22:46Speaker 01

  What do you think, 14,000?

• 1:22:48Trevor Noah?

  Maybe 14, yeah.

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  I mean, if you think, yeah, probably 14,000.

• 1:22:53Trevor Noah?

  The weird thing about doing live TV, and especially an award show or anything like that, is you're balancing two balls that are very differently sized. You have the TV audience, which is massive, and then you have the live audience, which is tiny in comparison. However, the live audience has a direct and immediate impact on you. The TV audience does not.

• 1:23:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:16Trevor Noah?

  But now, if you ignore the live audience, that is at your peril as a performer, because they will never be with you. And if you don't have the room, you don't have the right energy that gets you to where you need to be. In whatever you're saying, they're not listening, they're not paying attention, they're not coming with you, they're not laughing, you name it. If you only pay attention to the room, the person at home is going, well, clearly this is not for me.

• 1:23:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:37Trevor Noah?

  This is taking too long, this is, and you've watched an award show where it feels self-indulgent. You're sitting at home, and then the people there are like, ah, nice shoes, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And you're like, all right, clearly this is not about me, I'm just watching people. But this is The Delicate Dance, you are making a show for television. But there aren't two hundred people in that room with you. There are fourteen thousand people in the room with you. So they are as important in a weird way as the people at home. And yet they they serve very different purposes. So your pace for the people in the room is different to your pace for the people at home. Your pace for a joke is different, your pace for everything. So in these moments, what I'm experiencing is I've just felt where the room is when we've come out of the top of the show.

• 1:24:22Trevor Noah?

  And I've gone, damn, we have a lot of work to do tonight. Because people aren't as celebratory as they normally are.

• 1:24:36Trevor Noah?

  So now, when people are saying, how are you and how have you been? At every table, whether it's Cynthia Erivo talking to Taylor Swift, whether it's John Legend going over and talking to, you know, Esperanza Spalding or whoever it is. Everyone there is going, how are you? Normally, it's like, hey, what's up? How are you feeling? Yeah, baby. Ooh, look at you. No, now people are, how are you? Doesn't matter why, how are you? And now I'm going, oh, man. This is not where I would do the jokes that I thought I would do. And I've got to move that around. I'm doing all of this in my head.

• 1:25:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:25:11Trevor Noah?

  I'm trying to think of how we're shifting things. I'm trying to think of, and I mean, you know me well, both of you do. After every show, I go, there's a million things I could have done better, you know? But because I know comedy is so precarious, I'm always like, oh, it's the death of you. You know, to to what you said at the beginning of the conversation. Like, look at what happened with Joe Coy. I remember like everyone like laughing, oh, Joe Coy is terrible. Then people said to me, they were like, ah, Trevor, Joe Coy, that was terrible, right? I was like, I take no joy in that. There's literally no part of me that was like, haha, yeah, Joe Coy. No, I was going, as a fellow comedian, yo, my man. I'm not happy and I know what that's like as a feeling, you know? Any performer who's had, especially a stand up comedian, I'll never look at them and be like, yeah, you idiot, no.

• 1:25:52Speaker 02

  And it also compounds because the more you lose the room, the worse your performance becomes. And then you're even less compelling to even the viewer now.

• 1:26:00Trevor Noah?

  My friend, you you know it very well. So in this moment, I'm going, we have to edit what the show is or isn't going to be. Because I've responded to what's happened in like the monologue. And I've felt, because I'm, you know me, I'm doing it dynamically. I'm trying to feel where the people are. Because contrary to popular belief, you know, and I wish like people would understand this, especially online. There is almost no comedian that is getting on stage to try and make you feel shit. The very act of being a comedian is people who want to go on stage to make other people feel better. They like a laugh. They like making people laugh, right?

• 1:26:40Trevor Noah?

  But now, as, as like the aperture has expanded and as like things are moved out of context, people are subjected to comedy that they maybe didn't ask for, or they're watching something that isn't for them, and I understand that. You know, that's the nature of, of entertainment and TV and social media in particular, clipping of things, et cetera, right? So, I know as a performer, oh man, if I don't get that right, or if that moves, or if I didn't get the, it's gonna create the wrong ripple effect for the show, not even for me. And I don't want the show to have that kind of feeling. I don't want people coming up now, if I'm having a terrible time, Codi B doesn't come on and, and like laugh and giggle when she's presenting the award. If I'm having a terrible time, Gloria Estefan doesn't come on like, thanks Trevor,

• 1:27:24Trevor Noah?

  and a little fun, little bounce in her vibe. If I'm having a terrible time, J Lo and Heidi Klum don't pull off Benson Boone's outfit the same way. Now, they go like, ugh. Can we do this? Can we pull off this guy's, I don't know if I wanna be part of it. Jim Gaffigan is not jumping in. Yeah. You know, which for me was my favorite joke of the night. It's a really funny joke. Easily, easily. And shout out, shout out to Jim. Let me tell you something, man. There are few things I love more than comedians who love jokes more than anything else. Cause like, the reason I say shout out to Jim Gaffigan, he's one of my favorite human beings, he's one of my favorite comedians, by far. I didn't tell Jim Gaffigan that this was gonna happen. I didn't prep, I didn't prompt him, I didn't preempt it, I didn't do anything. And I'm sorry, Jim, I really apologize.

• 1:28:05Trevor Noah?

  But I only thought about it the day of, because the writers, right? So, the night before the Grammys. Yeah, it only happened that day, didn't it? Yeah, night before the Grammys, Luca gets traded to, um, the Lakers. Anthony Davis goes to the Mavericks. Yeah. Massive news. Caesar messages me first thing in the morning, he's like, yo, big things happened. I'm like, yep, I know. Dana Meyer, one of the writers on, on the team, he messages me, he's like, we gotta make a joke about this. There's gotta be a trade joke or something. So I'm like, I, we gotta, we gotta do something, we'll figure it out.

• 1:28:35Trevor Noah?

  I get to the venue, I'm like, okay, I got it. I got it. I'm looking at the seating chart and I go, Jim Gaffigan gets up, coming back from an ad break. Now I'm like, I'm screwing Ben, I hope I'm not. So I'm trying to find the least impactful place where this could happen.

• 1:28:47Speaker 01

  I loved it.

• 1:28:48Trevor Noah?

  So I go, let's get Jim Gaffigan to stand up and say, welcome back during the break, Trevor Noah was traded to Dallas. And so I'm now your host. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. People love it in the room, we pitched it to you, you love, everyone's like, this is gonna be great. And then like you, I made the giant producer's mistake. I didn't ask Jim Gaffigan.

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was happening during the show, cause I said, is Gaffigan in? Has anyone spoken to Gaffigan? And Kate Dowd, who was with you, she went, not that I'm aware of. I was like, well, somebody might need to go and tell Jim Gaffigan.

• 1:29:20Trevor Noah?

  Nobody has spoken to Jim Gaffigan. And then I, this, this is a mess, this is where like, literally like you, I made a massive assumption. I go, Jim Gaffigan, if you know anything about his comedy, his writing, the way he creates shows and who he is, this man has an insatiable appetite for jokes. Jim Gaffigan loves funny. So I made the mistake, as a fan of his, not even as like a peer, as a fan of his, I went, there's no way Jim Gaffigan wouldn't love this. And I thought, I'm just gonna go up to him, right before he has to do it and tell him. I also know that Jim Gaffigan can host shows. I also know that he's fantastic and he's calm under pressure. He's like, Jim Gaffigan is a stone cold killer in that way, you know what I mean? So in my head, I made all these assumptions. And then at the last minute, someone said, has anyone spoken to Jim Gaffigan?

• 1:30:04Trevor Noah?

  And I went with you, I was like with everyone, I was like, no. And then I said, I'll go. And I went and I found Jim on the floor. This was like, maybe like a two acts sort of end. So I think it was after Sabrina Carpenter and all of that. And I went, Jim, there's a joke. Here's the joke and I pitched it to him. Thank God, he immediately found it funny. And I was like, please, this is how, you know, I, I trust you, but this is how it needs to be performed. And then the red hot chili peppers are coming. And I need you to not diminish their moment.

• 1:30:31Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, because that's the only thing I said to you.

• 1:30:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, because I was like, we've promised them, this is, these guys, this is Californication. These guys are coming out for LA. Their thing can't be goofy, please. And Jim, the consummate professional.

• 1:30:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:42Trevor Noah?

  The best comedian out there doing his thing, like. Got up there and then honestly, like that moment for me as well was such a, it was such a like wonderful team moment. I mean, you heard the room, easily my favorite joke of the night, like by far, my far, my far.

• 1:30:57Speaker 02

  A lot of people were saying that as well.

• 1:30:58Trevor Noah?

  Easily my favorite joke of the night.

• 1:31:00Speaker 01

  But that's why I don't think, I think the room was better than you think it was in so many ways. I think

• 1:31:03Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 1:31:04Speaker 01

  By the time you got to act three, it was, it was like they loved it.

• 1:31:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, so what I'm saying is this, like, I'm also measuring it by how much I can contribute and what I can do.

• 1:31:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:31:14Trevor Noah?

  Not judging the room.

• 1:31:15Speaker 01

  No, I understand.

• 1:31:16Trevor Noah?

  But I know that as Trevor, there's certain things I should be, you know, certain marks I should be hitting or certain, certain connections that I should be making. But you know, you, you know this, like making a live show is like flying a plane. And then discovering something's wrong with it while it's flying and you have to fix it.

• 1:31:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, hundred percent.

• 1:31:35Trevor Noah?

  Oh, the wing is loose, but we can't land, it's live. A normal TV show, you go cut, cut, cut, cut. Alright, everybody. Hey, let's land the plane. Uh, let's fix the wing. Live show doesn't do that. Live show goes, we are flying and there's a massive error. Can somebody go down and check on the landing gear while we're flying? Uh, someone go check the wing while we're flying. Hey, check the, the windscreen, check the apparatus, check the equipment, check the, while we're flying. So I even as Trevor as a comedian, there's moments where the show is happening and I'm going, ah, I would have done that differently. I could have done that differently. The person I was looking at wasn't there. So then I have to change this. I'm gonna move that. I'm gonna, but it's live.

• 1:32:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:11Trevor Noah?

  I don't want to mess up your timing. It's not about me. So if I miss with a joke or anything.

• 1:32:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:16Trevor Noah?

  The show keeps moving. I can't be like, wait, wait, hold on, audience. Let me give you 10 minutes that I know is gonna.

• 1:32:21Speaker 01

  No, but what you are good at, and this is where I actually messed up, I think, in, in, in the bit with Cardi, which is what started this discussion. Was that I just wasn't on my timings and I'm always in his ear the whole show. And I'll be like, I need you, I need you to, I need you to, to like go a bit longer here. Beyonce's not in her seat for country album, the weekend set isn't set. You know, all of those things and you're unbelievable at like, there was one bit where you stood next to Billie Eilish and I said, mate, I really need a favor. I'm so sorry. Uh, uh, like I know this is a quick link, but I need you to fill for like a minute. And you stand there and it's the most natural thing. I watched the show last night. I, I sat. In my house, Harvey came over and we watched it. We got a curry and we watched it together because I could actually enjoy it and you're brilliant. You stand there go, hey, you're like, um, hey Billy, how you doing? And she's like, uh-oh, and you do a whole thing.

• 1:33:05Trevor Noah?

  No, but you see.

• 1:33:06Speaker 01

  You do a whole thing.

• 1:33:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but no.

• 1:33:07Speaker 01

  Could say something, but. But it was because I needed the time and meanwhile, everyone's building the set or whatever and you're just, you found it. No one would ever know that I'm in your ear going, take a bit longer.

• 1:33:16Trevor Noah?

  Yes, but this is also where people sort of, I wish they could be in my brain for some of these moments. This is like one of the moments I'm talking about. We're coming back from an ad break, right? Right before we come back, you say, Trevor, we need extra time. I go, okay, that's fine. We need extra time. I'm here. You're like, yeah, speak to anyone or whatever. So I'm right there. I look down and I go, who's around me? I'm like, oh, Billie Eilish is here, Phineas is here. But now literally we're coming back and three, two, one, just before we go like action essentially to me. Billy looks at me with terror in her eyes and she goes, uh-oh, but she doesn't go, uh-oh, like a funny, uh-oh. She goes like, like she goes, oh, oh, like, please don't do this to me. Now I wasn't going to do anything to her.

• 1:33:59Trevor Noah?

  But now I'm like, oh, man, I don't even want it to seem like I was doing something to her because here's the thing that people also don't get, right? I know it's easy to put people up on pedestals and like they're artists and they've won awards and that, yo, I, I know it's hard to imagine this. But there are human beings under all of these veneers. There are human beings under these Twitter handles. There are human beings under the dress rehearsals. There's human beings under the like tops. You name a top album, there's a human being under it.

• 1:34:25Trevor Noah?

  And then my job for me as Trevor is I'm not coming in there to make your night less fun or less enjoyable. Because you are also on the edge of your seat, wondering if you're gonna win a Grammy. You're wondering if your work is gonna be loaded. You're wondering if you're gonna be rewarded by your peers by the thing that you've spent so much time doing. Nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to be a loser. No one wants to, people to like laugh at them. I don't care who you are. Nobody wants that feeling. So for me as the host, I'm looking down at this person who's now just gone like, man. And I've been with Billie Eilish, like, at all the Grammys. This is the first time she's ever done that. Billie's never looked at me and gone, uh-oh. She's, her and Finney's look at me like, what's up?

• 1:35:09Trevor Noah?

  Hey, hey, this is the first time she went, uh-oh, like, and I was like, ah, but now we're live. Now, now what are we doing?

• 1:35:16Speaker 01

  And you still need to throw for.

• 1:35:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, and now you can't remember what it was, but I needed it. And so now I said, that's why I said the honest thing, which was like, Billy, I don't know why you're saying, oh, I'm not gonna. And she'd like, she, she's looking at me like, I don't trust you, this is coming. And so that moment is honest and, and, and I think that's sometimes the thing that people miss in a lot of these moments, you know? Like, when was it, like, right after the Grammys, for instance? It was, I think it was you, no, maybe Tullisaw or someone contacted me, they're like, hey, man, how do you feel? Some people are like, feeling bad about like, some of the jokes or whatever on the show. And I was like, I get it. But I, like, the, the one thing that I wish people would get with comedy comedians, I'll speak for everyone, but I think I speak for most comedians. We're trying to make people laugh, we're trying to have a good time, alright?

• 1:36:00Trevor Noah?

  The hardest place to experience a collective, safe comedy show is where everyone isn't the same. And the Grammys, for instance, is the best place for strangers and people who don't normally come together to come together. But it's also one of the most precarious places for comedy. Because the number one thing that comedy needs is context. Do you know what I mean? So like, I saw someone who said, you arrogant American, how can you say this shit about my people? Then I was like, I'm, I'm not American. Someone was like, how could you make that joke about immigrants? How dare you, you know, you American, what, then I was like, oh, I thought you knew that I was, I was an immigrant. Do you get, no, but those are small things that you can take for granted as a performer.

• 1:36:44Trevor Noah?

  You go, oh, yeah, because you've tuned into the show for an artist that maybe you never tune in for. You don't, you don't know me and you don't, you, you have this assumption, the show's in America, this person's talking about LA. Uh, yeah, that's an American. I'm like, no, no, I, I'm, I'm an, I'm an immigrant, I'm making a joke about the idea of immigrants by some people in. And, and those are the moments where you go like, ah, damn, I'm always.

• 1:37:05Speaker 01

  But does it bother you that people, like, does, does it get to you? Cause the majority of stuff is positive, but yeah, you, you think about the negative.

• 1:37:12Trevor Noah?

  No, so I, I don't think of it, it's a weird one to say. I don't think of it personally, cause I don't think it's personal. There's two things that I do whenever I look at any type of outrage or any type of criticism. Actually, three things. Number one, I always acknowledge that the size and scope of it are a lot smaller than than we think. You know, and you often say this, these were in general. How many people are saying a thing is oftentimes nowhere near to, you know, the amount of people saying. It's just a few people can be loud.

• 1:37:46Trevor Noah?

  That's the first thing I think of. The second one is it affects me on a professional level. Because then I go, I always take it on me, I go, I didn't do that properly.

• 1:37:57Trevor Noah?

  You know, one of my favorite things I heard was, um, I don't think he's credited with it, but I loved Anthony Jeselnik was on a on a podcast. I was talking about comedy and the idea. And he said something that I that I loved and is true. He said, art is getting away with it. You know, and so I don't care who you are as a comedian, you know, whether you are Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock or Trevor Noah, Anthony Jeselnik or Jim Gaffigan or Kitty Flanagan or you name it. Getting away with it is what makes it. It means that the people have fully understood the context that you were delivering a joke with. And you manage to bring them into your world to say it. That's why a comedian can make a joke about, you know, the most heinous things, you know. We talk about this all the time in England with like Jimmy Carr.

• 1:38:41Trevor Noah?

  Jimmy's saying the most horrible things, you know, you know, killing his family jokes or jokes about like mass murder, whatever it is. But because the audience knows he's Jimmy and they know that this is a joke, that there's a full context. As soon as the context gets removed, people react or respond differently. You know what I mean? And so on a professional level, I just always, it's a good reminder to me always to go like, all right, you can you can work a little bit better. How do you craft that perfect joke? Like, um, Chappelle, when he was on SNL, for me, that was one of his best performances I've ever seen. And I told him, I was like, yo, the way you think of the line when he says, people were laughing at people, celebrities losing their houses. People like, yeah, burn your house, burn your house. And then he goes, and that's why I hate poor people. Yeah. If you mess with that joke.

• 1:39:27Trevor Noah?

  The headline is Dave Chappelle says he hates poor people. But that man delivered it with such precision and perfection in the moment, in the tone, in the everything, that everyone knew it was a joke and they knew that it was a misdirect and what he was. It worked. You don't even have to get technical. It worked, right?

• 1:39:45Trevor Noah?

  And so as a comedian, when I miss, I don't go, screw the audience. I go, ah. A little, little bit, you know, you could try, try, yeah, try, try something different there. Move that around. Where's the audience? How do you meet them? What are they thinking? What are they not thinking? Because my intention is never to go out there and that's not what I'm doing. So it doesn't affect me. The third thing I do is try and contextualize it all. And I think that's one of the great things that I've enjoyed about working on the Grammys. We live in a world where people are spending less and less time with people who are not like them. We live in silos. People don't mix with people from other religions. People don't have conversations with someone who has a different political point of view.

• 1:40:30Trevor Noah?

  People aren't sitting down at tables with somebody who listens to different music. It's not happening as much as it used to, right? You know, we talked in one of the previous episodes with MKBHD, Marquez Brownlee. We talked about like this idea of the, the audience of one. How the for you page on social media is a fantastic invention, but it's also taken something away from society that we never knew we needed, which was to have a collective page. Did you see the thing? You saw the thing. I saw the thing.

• 1:41:00Trevor Noah?

  There's fewer and fewer instances of that. It's the Super Bowl, it's the World Cup, it's the Grammys. You know what I mean? Your for you page, my for you page can be completely different. So what we think reality is, is completely different. None of us is wrong, but it's different. And so what I do is I contextualize it. And the reason I say the Grammys has helped me do that is because I have been at five Grammys now. And I've watched how people have been offended. By the way, not by me, I've been lucky, like, people have been great, like, for most of it. But like, I've seen people get offended at Sam Smith's performance that one year. People like get offended. How could he? How, wha- what, huh, how, the, huh? I've seen people get offended by, you know, like, oh, Shakira, really?

• 1:41:44Trevor Noah?

  There are children watching and you're gonna dance, and it's like, it's like, no, no, no, the context, because they didn't, if you know Shakira, you know this is Shakira, this is great. I've seen people get offended by a rap act that's come on, and someone hears like one or two of the lyrics, and they're like, how can they say, you're gonna put that person on a public television show and let them say that? How, how could they say that sentence? I've seen people get offended by how some of the artists are dressed during a show. You know, this is family viewing, how could? I've seen some people get offended just because an artist performs after another artist. I've seen the downside of humans coming together, who are not homogenous, is there's likely to be more offense. The upside is, that's when you get the most beautiful tapestry.

• 1:42:30Trevor Noah?

  And I think that's what we experienced on the night. I saw people stand and cheer for Dochi because they had discovered her with that performance. Dochi knew Dochi. But people were standing up like, man, I just discovered Dochi. People were standing and cheering for artists, because they're like, I never, I never, chapel ron, they're like, is this what a chapel ron is?

• 1:42:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:53Trevor Noah?

  Charlie XCX, I saw old people start like going like, ah, ah, I don't know what this is. Yo, The Weeknd, that whole laser show, the whole. And I, and I think that thing for me, I might be in the minority, but I think the risk of people being offended, for me, is worth bearing if it means we're all at least in the same space to be offended. Because I think society needs more of that. And so, honestly, on a personal level, I always just put my head down and I go, do better, Trevor. And I don't mean do better like change the subject, I go like, no. How can you then in future create something where the context isn't lost? If I make a joke.

• 1:43:32Trevor Noah?

  And the point of the joke is what it is, and then you get angry. I really don't care. But if you go, oh, you you said this and it it meant that. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. Then I go, OK.

• 1:43:42Speaker 01

  Then I needed to do better.

• 1:43:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I go as a comedian.

• 1:43:45Speaker 01

  Explain that.

• 1:43:45Trevor Noah?

  Hey, man, I go as a comedian. I'm like, OK.

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:47Trevor Noah?

  And I and I look at a joke and I go. Tell it ten other different ways. How could you tell it in ten different ways so that the person who's listening to it would feel different about it?

• 1:43:56Speaker 01

  It's it's a different world that we live in now. This is going off from the Grammys, really. But like, for you, when you do this podcast, right? And you're out there and you're doing Daily Show, and you used to do it, you're doing comedy, you're doing things. You you're now talking to an audience that often will be offended for no reason, but sometimes might be offended for a reason. Do you have to change in the last few years? Do you think you've had to change the way you are because of the way people react to stuff now? Do you do you over censor yourself? Are you more cautious in the way you speak? Are you worried about that? Does that or do you still have just the freedom to say whatever you think is right and funny?

• 1:44:31Trevor Noah?

  I actually think I've gone the opposite way.

• 1:44:33Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:44:34Trevor Noah?

  And I'll tell you why. When I was hosting The Daily Show, I wasn't just hosting The Daily Show, I was executive producing The Daily Show. I was, in effect, the employer of a hundred and seventy odd people, I think at the peak, a hundred and ninety people. Me and my other executive producers, this is our job is to not just make a good show, but keep these people employed. Like, that's the pressure that comes with hosting a show, is that if you get kicked off the air, it's not just me. It's my camera guys, it's my team, it's my this, it's my and so in my head, I'm going, us fails, not me fails, us fails, all right? So if I say something that hurts this collective, can I stand by that? Oh, Trevor, you made this joke and now The Daily Show doesn't exist anymore.

• 1:45:20Trevor Noah?

  And I'm like, yeah, I don't care. Yeah, but I do care. Because I, you know, I I know Benny's kid, I I do care. Do you know what I mean? I I hang out with Zach. I do I do care. So that's the bigger thing for me. Now I'm a lot more nimble. And secondly, I also believe, you know, an Erin who who who um who does my hair, not just for the but for the Grammys and a bunch of things here in L A. She said it beautifully the other day. She said, I feel like we're moving into the age of authenticity.

• 1:45:51Trevor Noah?

  And I believe that. And so I go, you know, we talked to to Mark Hes about it on the show. We talk about everything. You know, man, I I no longer live in a space where I think things should be about like the publicity or the P R of it. If someone says to me, I didn't like that joke, I go, tell me why. And they tell me and I go, oh, yeah, that's that's not what I meant. But thanks for the notes. And I'm gonna try and tweak something or move it. I won't not say things. What I am more cognizant of, though, is that we have lost so much context. So even when I'm in South Africa, doing a podcast with Sizwe and Anele, or even if I'm telling a joke in Abu Dhabi, or if I'm doing like a T V show in Sydney, Australia,

• 1:46:34Trevor Noah?

  I know that that joke doesn't end in Australia anymore. I know that that podcast doesn't end in South Africa anymore. I know that the Grammys doesn't end in L A anymore. And so now what I'm trying to do, which is very hard, I'm not even saying it like in a woe is me way. I actually I actually like hard things. I like challenges. I go, wow, how do you tell a joke that maintains its context across borders? It's almost impossible, but I love the opportunity and the challenge. And so now I actually say more, but I spend more time trying to get to the context. Does that make sense?

• 1:47:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. So now Ben to you, right? I guess in the same vein, when you used to do the Late Late Show, which obviously you're also E P of, that was in some ways an extension of the work you do at the Grammys. So for example, the week leading up to a Grammy, sometimes you'd have a guest on that would throw forward to Grammys. And if anything were to happen, because it's only one night at the Grammys, if anything were to happen on the Sunday evening, you'd have had an opportunity, maybe on the Monday evening, to interview whomever the person was, clarify whatever needs to clarify, et cetera, so on. Without the Late Late Show now, do you find that you don't get to do a do over? Does is that something that actually filters into your mind at all? Because I used to obviously see the synergy between the two shows.

• 1:47:55Speaker 02

  Just having, you know, been around in proximity to you guys, I'd see how the one would work with the other.

• 1:48:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I I think I miss with the Late Late Show, it's not specifically missing replying to something that's happened. Cause I don't, I don't think, I don't think the stuff I would ever go in is ever goes into that contro- controversial. The Grammys, I can think of two moments probably in the five Grammys I've done, including last night's or whenever it was, two nights ago. That was, I got a bit of stick for WAP with Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion.

• 1:48:28Trevor Noah?

  Oh yeah, I remember, I remember that.

• 1:48:30Speaker 01

  My answer on that one was Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion wanted to do that performance. They were excited about it and who am I to say, no, actually, who am I to censor that? And say, no, you shouldn't do that. You need to be more like this. That's just not ever the job of someone like me. And then the Sam Smith one also, you're right, it did. People, people got, I got texts from a couple of people. Who were like, it was inappropriate, more from the religious perspective, because he was dressed like a devil.

• 1:48:54Trevor Noah?

  No, yeah, yeah, it was.

• 1:48:55Speaker 01

  And people were, there was a couple of people who said, you know, I, I don't think I'll be able to watch the Grammys anymore because of that. And I loved that performance and I thought it was amazing. But like, I, I have to say, I've, I've probably changed a little bit. I've got two little girls now. I had them then, but maybe they're of an age where they're repeating stuff and they were, you know, sitting in the front row at the dress rehearsal, watching Charlie XCX. And I was a bit like, oh God, my five year old's like grinding, like throwing the panties in the air. And I'm like, oh no, what have I done? But I'm probably a bit more conscious of it. I was a bit more like gung ho maybe five years ago. And now I am a bit more conscious that, you know, you are making a show that you want America to feel comfortable watching, not just your America. And so I'm very aware of that. And I think that that, that comes into me.

• 1:49:37Speaker 01

  As for what like the Late Late Show, I don't miss being, I was responding because it's James's show, not mine. Yes, I was the showrunner with Rob, but it was James's show. What I miss is something will happen in the world and you have no outlet to make a joke about it or make a sketch about it. Or there'll be something that happens in pop culture and you'll be like, oh, this is a great idea for like a spoof music video. I miss that hugely, but not in response to work that I'm doing really.

• 1:50:01Speaker 01

  That's that's not what I missed, but I but I definitely missed that power of creating an hour of television every day because it was just the most remarkable thing. I think about the Grammys and it's like months of work for like that four hours. Whereas at least the Late Late Show, you turn up every morning, you have a blank page.

• 1:50:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:17Speaker 01

  And you can do whatever you want. And that next day, you can't celebrate the good ones or mourn the bad ones because you've got another one tomorrow. You know, whereas if something goes wrong at the Grammys, and luckily it didn't. And in fact, I was happier than I've ever been after this Grammys. Weirdly, I felt the most like weight off my shoulders at the end. I don't know if you felt that from me afterwards.

• 1:50:35Trevor Noah?

  I did, I did. Because we had the, we had like no technical issues.

• 1:50:38Speaker 01

  We had no technical issues and it had gone well. And I really felt like everything that we wanted, we'd, you know, you had done that high wire brilliantly and the performances have worked. So it wasn't my favorite Grammys that we've done, even though everyone's saying, oh, best Grammys ever. It wasn't my favorite Grammys ever, but it was the biggest relief I've had because I was just like, oh, man, thank God it's over. The weekend didn't get leaked. Like, that was a secret.

• 1:51:03Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, that was huge.

• 1:51:05Speaker 01

  And best new artist is something I've wanted to do for so long. And yeah, I just thought it all worked really well. And I thought the other thing is, you know, that thing that you carry around and the voting has nothing to do with me. I don't even have a vote, of course I don't. But everyone going, you know, Beyonce's got to win album. It was like, it was just a relief that it happened.

• 1:51:23Trevor Noah?

  But also talking about like offense, I personally have gotten texts that have been delivered to me through like, I don't even know how like people know a person, literally people being like, how dare you say Beyonce made a country album? Do you let me tell you something that don't you dare? But but like people like people fighting with me, by the way, like I made a category, like I vote.

• 1:51:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51:44Trevor Noah?

  Like I chose, I'm even going like, okay, first of all, I don't know how you got this to me, but I also cannot do anything for you. Me, myself as Trevor, I cannot do anything for you. Right?

• 1:51:55Speaker 01

  Same.

• 1:51:55Trevor Noah?

  But but but that's what I mean by like offense in that way. And and here's the thing, here's the thing that's that's that's tough in life.

• 1:52:05Trevor Noah?

  What's tough in life is we should always remember that the car crash gets the most attention. Yeah. Right? And it's the way humans are designed, you know, sometimes we try and make it insidious. Oh, the news companies, they they'll always cut to the thing. Yeah, but also as humans, we look at the car crash. How was your drive? Man, there was a massive accident. How was your drive? I don't even know. You don't report the fact that the highway moved freely. You report the fact that there was a giant pileup. Okay, so I also understand this and I try to remind myself of it and think of it for people. But like, what I appreciate, I will say of the Grammys. So when I have the phrase like, it's not my favorite Grammys. I'm only talking on like a technical level. Sure.

• 1:52:46Trevor Noah?

  And on a like ease of, you know, it's like if I was a pilot, I was going, it's not my favorite flight because of the storm and the turbulence and all of that. Yeah. However, and I mean this honestly, getting to the end of that show, seeing the types of hugs that people were giving each other, seeing the way that people were responding to what had happened, seeing Dochi like celebrating her performance backstage, like, you know, like the greatest moment ever. When she's like, we did that shit, you know what I mean? Seeing like everyone, every single person experienced something so special, you know, where there's like Bruno, like Bruno Mars, people don't know how much that guy loves music and and doing it well. So to, you know, to see to see that in every way. And then on top of that, ended with like firefighters coming up to us.

• 1:53:31Trevor Noah?

  Even when people like, thank you. I was like, you can't thank me. Firefighters coming up and saying, man, thank you so much. And and I'll be honest, that's what keeps me going. Yeah. And I always say, um, there's this phrase, I I I it came into my head a few years ago and it was, let everything you experience in life be a question, be an answer to a question you already have. That's what I said to myself. Let everything that happens to you in life be an answer to a question you already have. And I was like, you don't know what the question may be, but when something happens to you, let it be an answer. So.

• 1:54:06Trevor Noah?

  Your car is taking long, you've given the car to a valet or something, it's not coming. And you're standing there and you, maybe the answer to your question, am I a patient person, is being answered right now. Do you know what I'm saying? It's an answer to that question. Someone says to you, hey, uh, your shirt looks nice. And you go, oh, thank you. And you feel something. That's an answer to the question, do I care how people think I'm dressed? Take it the way you want to, but it's an answer to a question you didn't know you had. And for me personally, when like firefighter comes up to me and goes, you know, like, uh, one of the, like, the, I think it was one of the chiefs, she was standing on stage.

• 1:54:44Speaker 01

  Sheila.

• 1:54:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Sheila, doing the actual award. Sheila came to me and she went, you. And I was like, oh, God. And she went, she's like, I've got a bone to pick with you, kid. And I was like, what? She's like, you gave me so many amazing years at The Daily Show. And then you go off and live life?

• 1:55:00Speaker 01

  She's funny, though.

• 1:55:01Trevor Noah?

  And she really is. And she's like, and you just leave me like this? She's like, I'm glad you're doing everything else you're doing. But, oh, and she's like, give me a hug. And it's like that moment, and then like.

• 1:55:12Speaker 01

  What was the question that she answered in that moment, though?

• 1:55:14Trevor Noah?

  The, the question that she answered for me was, am I doing it for anybody?

• 1:55:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:55:19Trevor Noah?

  Does it mean anything to anybody else? You know, is, is it like, cause I, I'll be, I'll be frank with you, and Caesar, you know that, like, you know this intrinsically about me. I don't care for most things and I don't do it for me, genuinely. I have a great time, like, doing most things, just like whatever. When it's outward facing, I don't care for most stuff. But in those moments, I remind myself that it's not always about me. And I see her joy and I'm like, oh, yeah, man. Trying to remember those people, you know, like, the, the other firefighter comes up to me and he's, he's just talking about like the stuff I've said and the way I've made him laugh and what. And I go like, oh, yeah, don't forget those people. And, and for me, the Grammys in that way. I know it's not the reason reason.

• 1:56:03Trevor Noah?

  But to your point, when you go, damn. The Grammys itself, sitting near like ten million dollars that has been raised, just on one night. From, you know, literally from the top, from doors coming all the way through Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and then you name it, all the way down to that final performance with Charli XCX. And you go like, every single person had to come together to do this, and in the same way, every single person who donated had to come together. Like, I'm, I didn't know this. But now I'm even more proud, knowing that each contribution wasn't ten thousand dollars.

• 1:56:39Speaker 02

  So much prouder, yeah, I agree.

• 1:56:40Trevor Noah?

  Everyone was just like, yo, man. And that's why I kept saying it the whole night, just give what you can. It's not about like, this is not about like, just give what you can. And I think that was the lesson for me of doing the whole Grammys for this year was, everyone, just give what you can, in every situation. Five dollars doesn't help anybody who's lost their house. It doesn't. But if everybody can give five dollars, you'll be shocked at what can happen. Do you know what I mean?

• 1:57:06Speaker 02

  That's literally what happened.

• 1:57:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Trevor Noah can't make the Grammys. I can't. I can't make it good, and I can't make it bad. But I can contribute to it, you know? Everyone can, and even like the recording members voting, you know, no one can make Beyonce happy. You can't. But thirteen thousand people came together from the music industry, and made her happier, I argue, than I've ever seen her, because I don't know her personally in that way, but like, I don't know, and I think that was, that was the overarching feeling for me.

• 1:57:34Speaker 02

  And isn't that kind of, I suppose the nub and the joy of doing a show like the Grammys, that it's actually so consequential in so many people's lives. If you do one of your evening shows, one of your evening shows, yeah, you can make a person feel good, but you do the show on behalf of the Academy. It literally means so much to all of those artists that are in attendance that night.

• 1:57:56Trevor Noah?

  And I also want to stress this to people. You don't understand how many artists are in that room. I know we, we see the big artists.

• 1:58:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:58:03Trevor Noah?

  And you know them, but man, you walk down and you'll see like a composer, who is having the night of their lives, sitting with their spouse. All they've done is compose, or even like conduct classical music, and they're just like, this is the pinnacle of what I've worked for. Sorry, I cut you off, carry on.

• 1:58:22Speaker 02

  And so while you're not in charge of like, who wins and who loses. You certainly are in charge, for example, of who gets to perform in what way.

• 1:58:31Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:58:31Speaker 02

  Right. And you've also got a very personal relationship with the artists. I've seen it. I've experienced it. Does it ever get to a point where?

• 1:58:38Speaker 01

  Not all of them, but some of them.

• 1:58:40Speaker 02

  That's exactly it. Does it ever get to a point where it adds to attention? Or I suppose then will make your relationship even better because of

• 1:58:47Speaker 01

  It does get better.

• 1:58:48Speaker 02

  A decision you've taken.

• 1:58:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, a hundred percent. There'll be artists who I've got relationships with and they'll be like, I've got a new single, I've got it, I'm gonna save it for the Grammys. And I'm like, ooh, I don't know if I've got a spot. And I'm like, this is awkward.

• 1:59:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's like really lovely things. I'd say like the three, the three performances that I was really excited about for a long time. Not a long time, actually. Some of them were a long time. When I, when it was actually, I called, I called Brandy Carlisle, who's a really good mate of mine. And I said to her, I really, I'd been listening to I Love L A. In my car going between the hotel downtown where we were evacuated to and my house where I was sitting during the day. Because I never thought the fires were gonna come and take my house away. But I did think like an ember could fly over and like, and then, and then a small little fire becomes a big one.

• 1:59:33Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:59:34Speaker 01

  So I just decided the kids would be downtown in the hotel, which is where we'd sleep. And then I, in the day, would come and sit in my garden. I had a hose at the front, a hose at the back and a hose on the side.

• 1:59:41Speaker 02

  What's the plan when the ember comes over?

• 1:59:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had three hoses, right? So I would sit there all day, have my laptop doing work by the window in the garden. And I'd just like look in case it was embers because I can put out an ember.

• 1:59:55Speaker 02

  You know what you're like?

• 1:59:56Speaker 01

  This is so funny.

• 1:59:56Speaker 02

  Not to like, you're like that guy in a zombie apocalypse with like a tiny little rifle.

• 2:00:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:00:01Speaker 02

  And you're just like, I'm, I'm gonna protect my family.

• 2:00:03Speaker 01

  I'm gonna protect my house.

• 2:00:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:04Speaker 01

  But no, but it's true because the truth of it is, my house was only gonna burn down because we were, we were at the edge of Brentwood. So the fire was a long, it was a mile and a half, but it was, it was close, but it wasn't close enough. If it was coming for us like it did with Palisades or, or, or, or Altair, Altair, I would have been able to get in my car and go.

• 2:00:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:22Speaker 01

  But it was more likely that something, we've got a lot of trees over the house.

• 2:00:26Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:00:26Speaker 01

  So I was just like, I think it would be better for me just to be there, put out a little fire.

• 2:00:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:31Speaker 01

  Then it become a big fire and then it's too late. So that's what we decided to do. It, it's not, I promise you, it's not as risky as it sounds.

• 2:00:39Speaker 01

  But I was listening to I Love L A and again, going back to our earlier point that I've suddenly become obsessed with this city, I don't know what's happened to me. But so I'd be listening to it and I'd be like, what a great way. That is making me feel good. I love that song. Maybe if Randy Newman would allow us to change some of the lyrics, which he did. But then I was like, who performs it? And at one point I was like, Stevie Nicks would be great. And then I was like, Miley Cyrus would be quite fun. Would that be cool? And then I thought, well, Red Hot Chili Peppers would be great, but they'd never do I Love L A because they'd want to do their own song, which might, which is amazing, but then it would be a bit more somber. Yeah, yeah, it's a very somber. So I called Brandy Carlisle and I went, I really like this song. Do you think it's a good idea? Who do you think I should, do you think Pink? Do you think like, who do you think?

• 2:01:20Speaker 01

  And she said, have you heard of the band Doors? And I was like, it's funny, I actually just watched them on Kimmel two nights ago. Because I know that they're, I didn't know them well, but I knew of them. And their house, like, one of their houses burnt down, parents' house, all of that. And she was like, I know them and they're like incredible musicians. And so I was like, maybe we do that and we put a super group around them. So that was an amazing moment, doing a Zoom with that band. They were like, why is the Grammys calling us? Like, not that they're not amazing, but like, they're not nominated band. And I was like, I'd like to speak to you. And I got on a Zoom with Taylor and Griffin and their manager, Brian. And I said, look, I want you to open the Grammys. Come following the footsteps of Prince and Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson. And they were kind of like, oh my God, this is insane.

• 2:02:03Speaker 01

  And it's a weird moment for them because they know, they've just experienced the biggest sadness in their life. They've lost everything. But then out of that comes. But out of that, they're opening the Grammys? So it's like a really amazing thing that they were dreamt of as kids. And then it's a real weird feeling for them because you're like, well, I'm only getting that. Yeah. I'm not gonna, then let's be, Doors aren't going to open the Grammys at this stage. They might in a few years, but right now they're not opening the Grammys unless that happens. So that's actually a bit of a head screwing thing for them. But that was beautiful because I knew it could be amazing and I knew they were great musicians. And every musician we called, John Legend, Brittany Howard, etc., Sheryl Crow. We emailed Bob Dylan's manager and I haven't heard back yet, but I'm hoping maybe we'll get a reply.

• 2:02:45Trevor Noah?

  Maybe he's in South Africa. He could be in South Africa taking time away.

• 2:02:48Speaker 01

  So those calls were fun. And then Ray and Dochi was really fun. Because I've been a fan of those for a long time, both of those. I've known her for a while. And then when Colbert put Dochi on.

• 2:02:57Trevor Noah?

  Oh man, your camera shot of the Dochi thing, like, made it look like she just like hated me. Did you see that?

• 2:03:04Speaker 01

  No.

• 2:03:05Trevor Noah?

  That was like, but this is what I mean about like the aperture in life, right?

• 2:03:09Speaker 01

  Go on.

• 2:03:09Trevor Noah?

  So the joke we always have at the Grammys is this, who you cut to defines the moment.

• 2:03:17Speaker 01

  I would have only.

• 2:03:17Trevor Noah?

  Like, for instance, if you, if I make a joke about Taylor Swift and you cut to Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift is like, uh-uh. It's over.

• 2:03:24Speaker 01

  Over.

• 2:03:25Trevor Noah?

  It's over. Now she.

• 2:03:26Speaker 01

  That happened to Joe Coy.

• 2:03:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:28Speaker 01

  That's what happens.

• 2:03:28Trevor Noah?

  Now you, she might have been going uh-uh for anything, but if you cut to her at the wrong time, and you have to. It happened to you, I think, four years ago. You have to be sensitive about this, actually. You know, obviously you and the director is like, you can make something that isn't something become something. So for instance, if you cut to an artist, do you remember the year Beyonce won Best Dance? And the camera cut to Diplo and he leaned over to somebody. And what he's now said, what he said, he said like, I worked on that or I wrote on that or something like that. Because he did, I think he worked on the album. But he went like, I worked on that. And then people at home were like, oh, he said, that's, that's screwed up or she shouldn't have won or she didn't deserve it. That's.

• 2:04:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04:10Trevor Noah?

  And all of a sudden Diplo's now having a, he's in a huge beef with an army of Beyonce fans.

• 2:04:15Speaker 01

  I do worry about that.

• 2:04:16Trevor Noah?

  And I always wonder about that on your side. It's like, what are you?

• 2:04:19Speaker 01

  You know what it is? It's about the timing of it. Because what happens is, so I will have a bank of, Hamish is in the director's seat to my right. And I have a bank of all of the cameras. There's like 20 of them.

• 2:04:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:30Speaker 01

  And so I'll specifically ask for the four that are in the audience.

• 2:04:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:34Speaker 01

  In my, in my best eye line, so I'll be looking there. And so while Hamish is calling, you know, cut to camera two, go around the back of Beyonce, get the fuck. You know, I will always be looking at where the stories are. Cause I'll know the stories more than Hamish will. He'll know like the shots, he tells an unbelievable story, but I'll know that like, you know, Billy is Charlie XCX's closest friend. Ah, got it, okay, got it, got it. So I'm aware of that because it's, I've put the show together. Yeah. But like, there is an example actually in this specific one, like I cut to somebody and they were smiling and they were really clapping, really, really a lot. And I said, I said to, I always call, I went, two's nice, that's what I'll go, I'll go lovely on three or whatever, which is my way of going really politely. I'd like you to cut to camera two or three, and Hamish knows that, rather than going, cut to three.

• 2:05:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just go, two's lovely, and he'll be like, two, and he'll catch it. But sometimes he'll have, you know, he'll be doing other things because he's got other plans or he wants to go wide or whatever. Or I'll be sort of shouting, see the room, see the room, so we're going wider. But if he cuts a little bit late, then somebody laughing, right, or like enjoying it, somebody laughing. And if he hears it a bit late, and then they've just finished laughing, and then they're gone, and then you cut there, then it looks brutal. And it happened this year where somebody was really applauding somebody for winning. I genuinely can't remember which one it is, I'd have to watch it back. And they were applauding like that, and I went, cut to camera two, and he didn't for a second, but then he went like four seconds later. And by that stage, they were like this, really like looking at the glove.

• 2:06:00Speaker 01

  And everyone was like, wow, they were so annoyed that they won, and I was like, oh, they were, they were, they were. So it's all actually, it's not even about the cutaway, it's about the split second of the cutaway. Because somebody during a laugh, the peak of somebody's laugh, their face is very different to the come down from the laugh. Yeah. So you've got to catch it. But then sometimes, sometimes, like when we caught, Taylor did like a dance, I can't remember when it was, but something happened. And she did like, she sort of did this dance, and it was only for that second that she did it with the camera on, it was incredible. And I was like, oh my God, that's amazing. Same with the meme that's gonna go forever of Beyonce being shocked. And what happens is, what happens is, and there's one thing I'm gonna change next year, I've decided. There's one thing I'm gonna change next year, if I'm allowed to, I'm saying it.

• 2:06:46Speaker 01

  I wanna swap the artist's name and the album, because what happens is, people go, Cowboy Carter, Beyonce. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, the, the TD, the technical director, who doesn't necessarily know the name of everybody's album, short and sweet.

• 2:07:03Speaker 01

  Sabrina Carpenter and then you might.

• 2:07:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:05Speaker 01

  So I think they should, we should just change it where they go Sabrina and then you immediately just know and you're not waiting because if you miss, like luckily we didn't miss it on Beyonce. If we had missed the like shake.

• 2:07:15Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, you wouldn't have that feeling.

• 2:07:16Speaker 01

  A fraction of a second later.

• 2:07:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:17Speaker 01

  Then the whole thing wouldn't have been like she was so surprised. It would have just been like it was emotional. So like your, the, the, the timing of that, when you cut. Defines those award moments.

• 2:07:26Trevor Noah?

  It's also, I know it's, I don't want to overstate it because it's just the Grammys, but it is still the Grammys. It's also a lot of power to wield. You can make beefs that don't exist.

• 2:07:36Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 2:07:36Trevor Noah?

  You can make artists.

• 2:07:37Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 2:07:37Trevor Noah?

  Quote unquote hate each other.

• 2:07:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:07:39Trevor Noah?

  Like according to the public.

• 2:07:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:07:40Trevor Noah?

  Oh, you saw how she responded when he won the award. You can literally, it also reminds me to, to be cautious of how I even see the world, funny enough. Like I go, don't forget that the world that you're seeing is filtered. Somebody's showing you something and how they show it to you defines how you think it actually happened or didn't happen. And not in a conspiratorial way, just remember the way you're seeing something has been chosen by somebody else. And so in that room, funny enough, I've seen people's faces shift like from moment to moment.

• 2:08:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:08:08Trevor Noah?

  But where the camera is.

• 2:08:10Speaker 01

  Well, you know what's funny? I made one change, one big change when I took over this show five years ago.

• 2:08:15Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:15Speaker 01

  And it was a change for the worse of the show, no question. I scrapped the quadrant where you see everybody's face when they win or lose. Because that was always on the show. It was always on the show every year for the sixty two years of the Grammys.

• 2:08:29Trevor Noah?

  You're talking about the, the part of the show where they go.

• 2:08:30Speaker 01

  So when they go, the nominations are.

• 2:08:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:32Speaker 01

  Da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And then they go, and then as they're opening the envelope.

• 2:08:36Trevor Noah?

  Everyone's faces are up there.

• 2:08:37Speaker 01

  Five or eight faces, all nominees are up there. And it's my favorite bit of award shows. I am rewinding.

• 2:08:44Trevor Noah?

  Wait, you love it?

• 2:08:44Speaker 01

  I'm rewinding it. I'm rewinding it to see their expressions. I'm rewinding it to see how good they're acting. I love it. Everybody loves it. And for the, for the, for the lesser of the audience experience, I took that away. I, I've made the show worse by doing it.

• 2:08:58Trevor Noah?

  But why?

• 2:08:58Speaker 01

  But why do you do it then? Because I think the Grammys, when we took it over, had some work to do in the artist community. I felt like the Grammys had, over the years, burnt a few bridges with quite a lot of artists. I felt like I spoke to some well-known artists who are friends. And they said that they felt like they were always on display, like they were in a zoo.

• 2:09:21Speaker 02

  Oh, interesting.

• 2:09:21Speaker 01

  They were in those lines.

• 2:09:23Speaker 02

  Interesting.

• 2:09:23Speaker 01

  You know, you were rose in a theatre and all the cameras are there and you're just sitting there squashed and you're you're stuck. You can't get out because you're on a road.

• 2:09:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:09:30Speaker 01

  Right, is that no one's on the aisles, there's only a few people on the aisles. So they were trapped and they were on camera. And they all said that although they loved winning a Grammy, the I think they felt like the evening was a lot of pressure for them. And it was a difficult thing for them to enjoy because they all felt on display. And there was also lots of other problems with the Recording Academy and Grammys that aren't for me to discuss now. And it's none of my business anyway. But I would, I essentially went around and spoke to a lot of artists and I really wanted to make artists. One of the biggest things I wanted to do five years ago was make artists want to come back to the Grammys again and enjoy it and love it and have a great night.

• 2:10:03Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 2:10:03Speaker 01

  And one of the things I get most happy about on that this night on Sunday, that room, as you just said, is stacked.

• 2:10:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:10:11Speaker 01

  And it's not just nominees, like people are showing up, they wanna come, they wanna be there, they wanna present, they wanna be part of it. They've got boxes that and it's become and that's that's I think that's for three reasons. One, it's because we go out of our way to be as loving as and as kind as we can to everybody. And like we do it in a nice way. Number two is people love the tables because it's a vibe.

• 2:10:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:10:33Speaker 01

  They've got food, they've got drink, they've got things, it's an atmosphere, it's a club.

• 2:10:37Speaker 02

  I wanna interject on that because I get to experience that in a way that you guys never do. You all is in the control room, you all is backstage somewhere.

• 2:10:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:10:46Speaker 02

  That vibe by the tables, I cannot begin to explain to you how much of a vibe that thing is.

• 2:10:51Speaker 01

  People love it, people love it.

• 2:10:53Speaker 02

  People move from table to table during air breaks, people come over, yo, so and so hugs, drinks. They have whatever the snacks are on the table. That is.

• 2:11:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:11:03Speaker 02

  Honestly, probably the best.

• 2:11:05Speaker 01

  So there wasn't, so before I took over, there wasn't drinks, there wasn't food, there wasn't tables, it was all just rows. You can't get up to speak, you know, you've been at the Emmys or whatever, you can't get up and talk and go around, you can't get in, people are shuffling, they're up, they're down. It's not, and then I also felt as much as I love the camera in someone's face when they lose.

• 2:11:23Speaker 01

  And as much as I think that's good TV, I felt for the long term gain of the Grammys.

• 2:11:27Trevor Noah?

  I get it.

• 2:11:27Speaker 01

  And the warmth that people feel, I want everyone to feel protected.

• 2:11:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:11:31Speaker 01

  And I know that losing on camera for them is gonna be difficult. And you know what? They don't need to have a camera in their face for it. They do have a camera in their face, because we're covering everybody's nominees.

• 2:11:41Trevor Noah?

  In case they win, but it's not.

• 2:11:42Speaker 01

  But I actually go out of my way.

• 2:11:43Trevor Noah?

  There's no memes of them, yeah.

• 2:11:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I really try, if I do see somebody who does really look a bit upset that they've lost, I don't cut to it.

• 2:11:52Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow.

• 2:11:53Speaker 01

  I don't cut to it, because like, I know that's good for gossip, and I know that's good for the internet, but it's not good for them, and it's not good for the person who's won.

• 2:11:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it makes the story about that.

• 2:12:00Speaker 01

  And I, and I really want it to be a nice, loving room, and I want people to love coming. And that's our bread and butter now. It's about them coming back every year and enjoying it.

• 2:12:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:09Speaker 01

  Because that's why, they've announced today CBS that it was the most, in the history of television, the most social impressions of any TV show of all time was This Last Sunday.

• 2:12:19Trevor Noah?

  Wow.

• 2:12:19Speaker 01

  Of all time. And like, that's because everyone's in the room, and I want everyone to feel protected by that. So if I did see, if I did think Billie Eilish was crying because she'd lost an album, we wouldn't have cut to her.

• 2:12:30Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 2:12:31Speaker 01

  But because she was crying like Gaga was with the emotion of the moment, or firefighters, whatever it was, I was like, that's a beautiful shot. So yeah, that's, that's just something that we changed that I miss, because as a viewer, I miss it. But as the person who has to oversee the show.

• 2:12:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:45Speaker 01

  It's helped me a great deal, and I, you know, and I just feel like, don't worry about it. You're gonna be fine. You're not gonna be embarrassed.

• 2:12:51Trevor Noah?

  I like that.

• 2:12:52Speaker 01

  And it's, you know.

• 2:12:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, congratulations, my friend. It was a, it was.

• 2:12:55Speaker 01

  Congratulations to you. You danced that high wire.

• 2:12:57Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, for real.

• 2:12:58Speaker 01

  You did phenomenally.

• 2:12:59Trevor Noah?

  It's not an easy task. You spend pretty much a year on, like, you only get a few days to enjoy the Grammys, and then you go into the Grammys immediately again.

• 2:13:07Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, maybe. I mean, I juggle a few different things.

• 2:13:09Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you spend a lot of time on it, so I, I'm always happy for you and the entire crew and team. Like, the, the last thing I hear before I walk out on stage is oftentimes what the stagehands are saying. And even that is part of like, literally, we're like part of a football team or something. You know, like the the the lead stagehand comes out and then he made this beautiful speech. He didn't even know that I was like listening to it, but I I felt motivated. He's like, all right, everybody, you know why we're here? You know what we're doing? We got one night, people, let's make this work. Let's put our best foot out there and come on, guys, let's get through it. Let's get to the other side. You ready? Let's do it. Yeah. And then I cheered and I clapped and they turned like, oh, the host was here. We did. But I was like, no, thank you. I was like, I needed that. I also needed that. So.

• 2:13:47Speaker 01

  It is, I would say.

• 2:13:48Trevor Noah?

  Congrats to everyone.

• 2:13:49Speaker 01

  This is a corny thing to say and it's boring for a podcast, but I I want to say it because it's 100% true. This podcast is boring. No, I loved it. I found it like therapy. I found it like therapy. It's been lovely. But like, it's it's um, like, I'll be the one who sits here and talks about the show and represents it. But like, we have put together this A team. Like, you're talking about those stagehands. Just think about how quickly they need to.

• 2:14:11Trevor Noah?

  It's insane, man.

• 2:14:12Speaker 01

  Take down a Sabrina Carpenter set and bring.

• 2:14:14Trevor Noah?

  It's so impressive.

• 2:14:15Speaker 01

  Weekend pyramid. You know, Raj Kapoor, Jesse Collins, Patrick Menton, Tabitha Janey, all of them, David World. They just do this phenomenal job. That makes, I think, the hardest show in television possible. And and the fact that people are being nice about it. Look, I'm more relieved than I am happy. I'm never like, I'm never that self congratulatory. I don't, you are either. I'm just more relieved that, like, you know, the 12 nice emails came in. That's it.

• 2:14:38Trevor Noah?

  I like that. The 12 nice emails. Ben Winston, thank you so much, my friend.

• 2:14:42Speaker 01

  Oh, it's lovely change you're.

• 2:14:50Trevor Noah?

  What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Spotify Studios in partnership with Day Zero Productions. The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Sanaz Yamin and Jodie Avigan. Our senior producer is Jess Hackle. Claire Slaughter is our producer. Music, mixing and mastering by Hannes Brown. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next Thursday for another episode of What Now.