'The Daily Show' quietly bumped Chris Brown for Nick Cannon

R&B singer and convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown was scheduled to appear on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah on Tuesday night—a choice of guest that was met with widespread disapproval even within the show’s staff, who reportedly held an all-hands meeting to discuss the booking on Monday. But it appears that The Daily Show has done its best to disappear that controversy altogether, beginning with an Instagram post on Tuesday night that named actor Nick Cannon, not Chris Brown, as the evening’s guest.

Wait, what?

Come 11 p.m., Noah dove right into his introduction, business as usual: “We’ve got a great show for you tonight. Our guest from the Spike Lee movie Chi-Raq and host of Wild ‘N Out Nick Cannon is here, everybody!” (That’s back-to-back Chi-Raq coverage, by the way: Spike Lee was a guest on the show on Monday night.)

No mention of the show’s previously scheduled guest was made throughout the episode.

It’s proven to be less than a banner day for Team Brown on multiple fronts. The musician’s promoter announced that his upcoming tour of New Zealand and Australia–already in jeopardy after the latter country blocked his visa due to his history of domestic violence—has officially been cancelled.

We have reached out to The Daily Show for comment about Brown’s replacement with Cannon and will update with their response.

UPDATE:

Comedy Central PR responded to our request for comment on Wednesday morning: “Guest bookings are always subject to change. The show hopes to reschedule Chris for a future appearance.”

Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.