Jessica Williams Is Leaving The Daily Show

Comedy Central's youngest TDS correspondent ever is leaving to develop her own project at the network

By Billy Nilles Jun 29, 2016 4:40 PMTags

The Daily Show is losing another one of its key correspondents.

Jessica Williams, the show's youngest correspondent ever, is walking away from the Comedy Central series after four years to focus on a project of her own at the network. Williams announced her departure in an interview with EW on Wedesday, revealing that the Thursday, June 30. "I feel so many emotions," she said. "I feel like I'm growing up and graduating."

Williams' new project at the network is a still-untitled scripted half-hour series that will center on "a politically-minded young woman who may be ‘woke' but doesn't know what she's doing," according to its official description. "It's a show about someone in their 20s who has all these social ideas but still, like, does not have it together," Williams said. "And she's goofy and silly and funny!"

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When Williams joined The Daily Show in January 2012, she was only 22 years old, making her the youngest correspondent to work on the series, as well as its first black woman in the position. She marks the first correspondent departure since Trevor Noah assumed hosting duties following Jon Stewart's retirement in 2015.

Comedy Central released a statement on Williams' exit from TDS, tweeting, "Comedy Central thanks the incredible Jessica Williams for over four amazing years with The Daily Show and we couldn't be more excited that Jessica remains in the Comedy Central family as we collaborate on her upcoming pilot." Keeping Williams in the family seems especially vital for the network as the last few years has seen former correspondents John Oliver and Samantha Bee make headlines with their current shows on HBO and TBS, respectively.

The Daily Show's Twitter account also shows Williams some love following her announcement, tweeting, "We'll miss you @msjwilly! Thank you for four wonderful years. #jwillennium #eatcraylove." The network followed up their initial statement with an additional tweet containing a highlight reel of Williams' work on the series, which you can check out below.

Are you bummed that Williams is leaving TDS or looking forward to see what she does on her own? Let us know in the comments below!

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