• Trevor Noah says he's leaving "The Daily Show" after seven years of a Trump- and pandemic-filled tenure hosting the weeknight Comedy Central mainstay. Noah surprised his studio audience during Thursday's taping, dropping the news after discussing his "feeling of gratitude" that it was the anniversary of when he took over for Jon Stewart. "I realized, after the seven years, my time is up," Noah said. Neither Noah nor Comedy Central offered a timetable for the departure. The network said it was "grateful to Trevor for our amazing partnership" and indicated it was excited "for the next chapter." Television late-night comedy's ranks have been shrinking, with Conan O'Brien pulling the plug on his show last year and Samantha Bee ending hers this year. Noah, then a relatively unknown comic from South Africa, was a bold choice to replace the popular Jon Stewart in 2015, but he slowly made the show his own and built a dedicated audience. "So many people didn't believe in us," he said. "It was a crazy bet to make. I still think it was a crazy choice -- this random African." He said hosting the show has been one of his greatest challenges and joys. "I wanted to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years," he said. "It's been wild. It's been truly wild." Like most of his fellow comedians, he dealt with the firehose of material during Donald Trump's presidency and, when the pandemic started, found himself suddenly thrust into the challenge of producing a program without an audience. He said he realized there was more that he wanted to do recently when he was able to travel again. "I miss learning other languages," he said. "I miss going to other countries and putting on a show."
• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has stripped four of her grandchildren of their royal titles. Prince Joachim's three sons will no longer be princes and his daughter will no longer be a princess, the royal household announced this week. The kids will officially lose their titles Jan. 1. The monarch said the move was for the good of the children, ages 10 to 23. "Her Majesty the Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves," the royal family wrote. But the kids didn't quite see it that way. "This came from out of the blue," Prince Joachim's first wife, Countess Alexandra, told a Danish newspaper. "The children feel excluded. They can't understand why their identity is being taken from them." Alexandra is the mother of the two older children -- Nikolai, 23, and Felix, 20. Prince Joachim remarried and had two more kids -- Henrik, 13, and Athena, 10 -- with his new wife, Princess Marie. The palace assured that the children will keep their places in the line of succession.