Trevor Noah has been announced as the new host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central when Jon Stewart steps down later this year.

The South African 31 year old comedian made his debut appearance on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart last December as an on-air contributor.

After only three appearances on the programme he’s been confirmed as the new host to take over before the end of 2015.

The New York Times reports Noah said “you don’t believe it for the first few hours… you need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol [speaking from Dubai whilst on tour]”.

No-one can replace Jon Stewart. But together with the amazing team at The Daily Show, we will continue to make this the best damn news show!

— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 30, 2015

Jon Stewart said in a statement he’s “thrilled for the show and for Trevor… he’s a tremendous comic and talent that we’ve loved working with”.

The New York Times says Trevor “gave no formal auditions for the job”.

Trevor was offered some words of advice by Jon – he told Noah “nobody knew me… I was just starting out, finding my voice, and that’s when I was handed this seat”.

NYTimes.com – “Trevor Noah to Succeed Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’”