Acclaimed comedian Roy Wood Jr. will host the U.S. version of the long-running British comedy series “Have I Got News for You,” CNN announced Thursday.
Set to premiere on September 14, the 10-episode limited series will air on the 24-hour news network every Saturday at 9pm ET. Episodes will be available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max) the following day.
The show will be produced by Hat Trick Productions, which has been producing the British version since 1990.
According to CNN, Wood, who served as a correspondent for “The Daily Show” for eight years, will host the “comedy quiz show” alongside two team captains, who have yet to be announced.
According to the network, the show will “deliver humorous observations ranging from the satirical to the surreal from a news quiz show perspective.”
The series features a rotating cast of guests, including well-known entertainers, politicians and comedians, who take part in a news quiz.
In a statement included in a press release Thursday, Wood mocked former President Trump’s recent reference to “black jobs.”
“For too long, immigrants have come to America and taken black jobs. Kudos to the immigrants at CNN and Hat Trick Productions for bringing black jobs to America,” Wood said.
“It’s an honour to be part of such a hallowed British institution, helping to unravel the American system of confusion, name-calling, disinformation, reality TV and the eight-hour news cycle,” he added.
Wood headlined the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he told some fiery jokes and helped the event’s viewership reach its highest since 2017, according to CNN.
In his speech, he criticized President Biden’s age, slammed President Trump as a “scandal king” and also offered scathing criticism of other members of the media.
“The Trump scandals are too numerous to keep track of,” Wood said at the dinner last year.
“Can I honestly say that Trump’s arrest wasn’t as much of a shock as we thought it would be?” Wood said last year after Trump was indicted in the New York hush-money case, in which he was subsequently convicted on all 34 criminal counts. “Trump’s arrest is like a marijuana brownie that you ate four hours ago. Do I feel like it’s justice? I don’t feel like it’s justice.”
“Try one of those Georgia indictment brownies,” he added, “I think you might win.”
He noted that Republicans aren’t the only ones with newsworthy scandals, saying, “There’s no scandal more damaging than the ‘Is Joe Biden woke?'” scandal.
“Say what you want about the president, but when he wakes up from his nap, the job gets done,” he added.
