Chris Brown Removed as Daily Show Guest After Staff Objections 

Tuesday night’s Daily Show was set to feature Chris Brown as the guest, according to a schedule posted online last week. Instead, Nick Cannon appeared, with little indication as to why the change was made. Except, uh, we can guess why the change was made.

A report in The Daily Beast earlier this week said that Daily Show staffers were “split” over Brown’s appearance, given that he violently assaulted Rihanna six years ago and spent the remaining time really confirming your impressions of him: Throwing a violent, window-breaking tantrum on Good Morning America in 2011, copping some hit-and-run charges in 2013, throwing a rock through his mother’s car window and getting kicked out of rehab in 2014, and, more recently, in a calmer phase of his life, sending nasty, misogynistic subtweets about the mother of his child (“females” who “use children as meal tickets”) and counseling another ex not to be a “thot.”

However, the DB also reported that Noah planned to use the interview with Brown to ask him some direct questions about domestic violence, telling the staff that was his intention during a Monday meeting. Noah’s ex-stepfather viciously abused and eventually shot his mother, then “hunted” Noah, looking to harm him too. (His mother recovered, and, with her encouragement, Noah moved to the U.S. to pursue his comedy career.)

But then, there are also those unfortunate old tweets of Noah’s that surfaced this year, several of which cracked Chris Brown-and-Rihanna themed jokes:

The Washington Post notes that while the T.V. schedule still said Brown would appear, the Daily Show’s Instagram announced a few hours before showtime that Cannon would be the guest.

Also yesterday, Brown’s Australia and New Zealand tour was cancelled, after warnings this fall from the Australian government that they planned to deny him a visa due to the assault charges. At the time, Brown tweeted that he had hoped to use his tour to show “that mistakes don’t define you” and to “prevent spousal abuse.”

Neither Noah nor anyone else from the Daily Show has commented publicly on Brown’s non-appearance.

Image via AP.