Noah’s debut pleases most viewers

“…the biggest takeaway from Noah’s first swing at succeeding Jon Stewart was the new host’s energy and exuberant confidence – something most take weeks, if not months, to find,” wrote David Simms on theatlantic.com.

A poll on E!Online yesterday saw 93.5% of voters saying they loved the show’s new host and executive producer. Predictably, Noah’s more risqué material was questioned by some. A joke about Whitney Houston’s death, as well as a play on the word “aides” received a few raised eyebrows.

Others felt that there wasn’t enough of a contrast between Noah’s show and the one hosted by Jon Stewart. However, he was praised for his opening monologue as well as for a bit he did with correspondent Jordan Klepper.

In the former, he paid homage to Stewart, and wittily addressed the fact that Amy Poehler had apparently turned down the hosting gig. In the latter, he played dumb while Klepper used the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner – to make comments about how Noah may fail.

Noah’s first guest, comedian Kevin Hart, proved to be a bit of a handful for his host. He arrived with a box of ties for Noah, and you could almost feel the audience’s anticipation as they waited for him to deliver a clever one-liner about the gift. Noah chose to graciously accept and move on with the show.

Tonight’s guest will be Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of dating site Bumble. It will be interesting to see how he fares against a lesser-known personality.