Roy Wood Jr. is one of comedy's most prominent political minds, but he has never forgotten his HBCU roots. Wood graduated from Florida A&M in 2001 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He's parlayed the media skills that he cultivated on the highest of seven hills into a gainful media career that includes a stint at The Daily Show, where he was a longtime correspondent during Trevor Noah's run as host.

But according to Wood, his time at The Daily Show would not have happened without his HBCU connection. In an exclusive interview with HBCU Pulse Radio, Wood said a connection with the TV producer, also a Florida A&M alumnus, gave him the skills he needed to succeed on Comedy Central's long-running political satire show.

“And you know, I just benefited from the fact that a lotta Rattlers who did not know me had a lotta love for me and saw that I had a passion for the school,” Wood recalled. “So every blue moon, one of them would reach back, throw me a oop. I had a brother that was a producer at ESPN, saw me doing something on a sports talk radio show. ‘Hey man, you went to FAM?' We started swapping professor names and who we hated, and he go, ‘You know, man, you wanna come…If you're ever up in Bristol, this lady named Jemelle Hill is starting a new afternoon show with this dude Michael Smith. It's called ‘His and Hers.' If you ever wanna do that, just let me know.”

Wood said the opportunity to be on His & Hers ultimately helped him develop his skills as an on-air personality.

“Bro, that single conversation started a year-and-a-half run of me doing different ESPN shows, which of- essentially was the foundation skill-wise for me being able to do The Daily Show. I don't book The Daily Show without that conversation with that dude, period, point blank.”

Wood went on to become one of The Daily Show's most prominent faces, known for humor rooted in Black culture. But he made headlines when he left the show to create other projects, ultimately leading to the hit CNN late-night program Have I Got News for You.

Wood describes his departure from The Daily Show as a chance to bet on himself, while also reflecting on what was happening around him.

“The decision to leave The Daily Show was rooted in a couple things. Number one, there was a lot of uncertainty at the time. Jon Stewart was not guaranteed to be the host. His name wasn’t even in the hat. I asked Comedy Central, the people outside the building. People in the building rocked with me, but outside the building they said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna restart the search for a host from scratch.’ The guy we wanted, Hasan Minhaj at the time, that’s my dog, no shade. Hasan was supposed to be the guy. For whatever reason, they decided he was no longer the guy.”

He then described pressing network executives for a backup plan and getting no clear answer.

“So we go to them, ‘Okay, well, who was number two on your list? You had to have ranked everybody.’ And they said, ‘We’re gonna restart the search from scratch again.’ Okay, well, this search just took a year and you came up with nothing.”

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Wood said he weighed whether to stay and re-audition or bet that his work on the show and at the correspondents’ dinner would be enough to land something else.

“I’m asking myself, do I wanna stay another year and re-audition, or is what I did on television for this show and the [White House Correspondents Dinner] enough for somebody else out there to maybe offer me something? You know what? It’s an election year. I bet you if there’s ever going to be a new show to come out on cable, it’ll be this year during an election year. I can’t get a show if I got a show, so I gotta leave this show.”

The bet paid off because, ultimately, Have I Got News for You US developed after the franchise's successful stint in the UK.

“And case in point, since my exit from The Daily Show, there have only been two new political satirical programs in late night. There was After Midnight on CBS with Taylor Tomlinson, and there was my show, Have I Got News For You, on CNN. We premiered within three months of each other. My show is the only one that's still on the air. There have been no new shows developed. There have been no new shows released in that same three-year span. So I'm not saying that I was right, but I am saying that the bet that this is the window for new stuff to come out, this is the time.”