Shortly after Jordan Klepper and Desi Lydic were nominated for Emmys, they were bumped from “The Daily Show.”
“I just worked on an act two today. I just got bumped. This is how quick you fall,” Klepper joked to TheWrap.
“I came in — child and all — ready to sit on the bench, just waiting to be used, and they said, ‘No, thank you. We don’t need you today,’” Lydic added, noting that she brought her son to work on Wednesday because her sitter was sick. “Jordan was supposed to be on and they said, ‘You know what, you need a little more work.’”
Neither Klepper nor Lydic were particularly upset that they were cut from Wednesday night’s show. But quickly skating past a major accomplishment like earning seven Emmy nominations, including two noms each for Klepper and Lydic, to focus on making the best show possible encapsulates what makes “The Daily Show” so remarkable.
This year, “The Daily Show” as a whole scored nominations for Outstanding Picture Editing, Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork. But Klepper and Lydic’s nominations are especially notable as they showcase how “The Daily Show” has expanded. Though both are part of the Comedy Central show’s rotating list of hosts, Klepper and Lydic were honored for their individual projects under “The Daily Show” umbrella.
For Klepper, that means being nominated for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special as well as Outstanding Writing For A Nonfiction Program for his “Fingers the Pulse” segment. Mini documentaries of sorts, Klepper’s “Fingers the Pulse” series stand as some of the most interesting and well-reported deep dives into the far right and the MAGA fanbase. Over the past nine years, Klepper has used the segment to interview Donald Trump’s supporters on everything from the UFC match that happened on the White House lawn to the growing friendliness between the right and Russia. Though these segments are always comedic, it’s Klepper’s earnest interest in his subjects that has always elevated the series. This year, the 25-minute “Give The Man A Prize” episode about whether or not Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize was honored with both Emmy nominations.
“Fingers the Pulse” was nominated by the Emmys twice last year. Its “MAGA: The Next Generation” ultimately won Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program.
If Klepper’s “Fingers the Pulse” is an example of comedy exposing the heart of a complicated political topic, then Lydic’s “Foxsplains” segment exemplifies the other thing “The Daily Show” does best — using brutal, scathing satire to mock the media. Filmed against a blank wall with a ring light, each episode of “Foxsplains” features Lydic half-yelling at the camera as she breaks down the latest Fox News and rightwing media craze, covering everything from Trump’s big beautiful ballroom to the Epstein files. “Foxsplains” is a perfect mockery of the darker corners of YouTube, an intentionally feverish rant that feels like being dumped into the comments section for a Newsmax article.
This year, “Desi Lydic Foxsplains” is up for Outstanding Performer In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series as well as Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama Or Variety Series.
Lydic is the most-nominated performer in the Outstanding Performer in a Short Form category. She was nominated for Outstanding Actress in the category when it was still dived by gender in 2022 and has been nominated as Outstanding Performer from 2024 to 2026. Lydic won the awards last year, beating Kevin Hart, Tom Segura, J. K. Simmons and Nathalie Emmanuel for “Foxsplains.”
Though Klepper and Lydic are thrilled by their nominations, both are far more focused on the work they’re doing on “The Daily Show.”
“It’s a net positive for ‘The Daily Show’ that we have to keep making shows. I love that. It’s a New York thing. It’s a late night thing. It’s a comedy thing,” Klepper said. “We feel super grateful to have recognition for the show, and we’re very proud of the stuff we get to do. But what’s even more important to us is that we get to do it every night … It could be a little bit of a trap to stop and think too much about how people perceive what you do. It’s a benefit to get back in there and just keep doing the work.”
“We always feel so lucky to get to work with people that are our family, who we’ve worked with now for 11 years,” Lydic said, before joking it’s more like 150 years for Klepper. “Maybe I’m a little biased in thinking that this is truly the greatest staff on the planet. But then to watch our colleagues be recognized in this way feels really, really nice. It makes me so happy.”
As “Fingers the Pulse” and “Foxsplains” have matured, they’ve also evolved as they’ve found their own distinct audiences.
“We started doing [‘Foxsplains’] during the pandemic when we were working from home, and out of pure necessity we had to film it on an iPhone up against a wall in my apartment,” Lydic said, explaining there was no prompter or production during those early days. “That was such a happy accident. It worked really well for the tone of the series because it started out satirizing Fox News and the mental gymnastics that they play. But as the series went on, it became much more of a commentary on internet culture at large — the fact that everyone has to have a hot take. You can’t take five minutes to stop, process it and think it through. It’s like I’ve got to get this message out immediately to the public.”
“Also ‘The Daily Show’ has learned to evolve and adapt to a news cycle that is shifting and a late night cycle that is shifting,” Klepper added. “I feel so lucky because we work with so many people who now get to story tell in different formats.”
In its current iteration, “The Daily Show” acts almost like a mini media empire. On the proper show, which premieres weeknights on Comedy Central, the series’ rotating roster of hosts break down the news of the day through their opening monologues. “Fingers the Pulse” offers an avenue for the team to spearhead longer deep dives. And — true to its format — the shortform series “Foxsplains” is more reactionary as it mocks more niche stories and trends in the internet’s language.
“I think that’s that’s why ‘The Daily Show’ has been around and successful for 30 years. It’s not just one thing. This umbrella gets bigger and bigger,” Klepper said. “I also think we are good at adapting. You have to be in this industry. You have to be in this world. The last 10 years have been strange. We’ve gone through different hosts, a pandemic, writers’ strikes. We’ve gone through a period where we had rotating hosts, and each time we figured something else out. You have a space now where we all feel really comfortable sharing host duties … We also feel comfortable going out into the world and telling stories in different ways.”
“So much of this flexibility and process and evolution of the show over time, we have to give credit to Jen Flanz, our executive producer, showrunner, captain, leader of all things,” Lydic said. “She’s been here since she was a PA at the show in the Craig Kilborn days. So she’s been here for a very long time, seen the transitions, and she is so excellent about innovating new ways to do the show and evolving as time goes on. Then, because it starts with her, it trickles down to the rest of the staff and everybody else.”
As for what these two titans of Comedy Central want for their future, they both have the same aspirational goal: an episode of “The Daily Show” that isn’t fully focused on Donald Trump.
“I’m looking forward to doing a piece at the end of the Trump administration, where he’s no longer president, and we have to tell the audience, ‘We looked at the news, and it was just too boring today. We can’t do a show, so we’re going to run a rerun,’” Klepper said.
Lydic mentioned a phrase that “The Daily Show” writers use sometimes: Oops, All Trump. She likened the term to the cereal varieties from the ’80s and ’90s, the most popular of which is probably Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries.
“We have a term for when we craft the show and we realize the entire show, top to bottom, is all Trump,” Lydic said. “So, I’d like the opposite of Oops, All Trump — Oops, No Trump. That would be my dream, pie-in-the-sky show.”
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