Trevor Noah will remain as the host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” through 2022, the Viacom-owned network announced Thursday, and will expand his duties to boot.

Under the terms of the deal, which keeps Noah as host, writer and executive producer of the program, the comedian will produce and host annual, year-end specials, starting this year. The format of the specials is still being worked out, said Kent Alterman, president of Comedy Central, in an interview. Noah realized “that on a day-to-day basis, he is absorbing the headlines of the day, and creating content out of that, and it would be great to within the auspices of ‘The Daily Show’ do some sort of stand-up special or take a look at the year in terms of the headlines that have transpired,” Alterman said. “Maybe there’s an undercurrent of not necessarily assuming we are going to have a year to follow.”

By extending Noah’s contract, Comedy Central is signaling its confidence in the host, who spent some time under intense critical scrutiny after inheriting the “Daily Show” seat from his predecessor, Jon Stewart, in September of 2015. The program, as it has been since it launched with Craig Kilborn as host in 1998, serves as the linchpin to the network’s late-night schedule, and has become, along with “South Park,” a signature series

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