(Screenshot: Joni Lamb appearing on Daystar Television Network.)
Following the May 7, 2026, death of Daystar Television president Joni Lamb, Daystar viewers and critics questioned how Joni died and who will be her successor.
While Joni avoided discussing her declining health on television, details of Joni’s illness appeared on social media. In March 2026, Samuel Lott reported in a Facebook comment, “My son was at a party and the cousin of Joni Lamb was there and he told my son that she has terminal cancer.”
The theory that Joni had cancer emerged earlier. In March 2025, apologetics researcher Susan Puzio of Prophetic News TV learned that Trinity Foundation’s Pastor Planes project tracked Daystar’s Gulfstream G-V jet traveling four times to San Diego, California.
(Screenshot: On September 29, 2025, the Daystar jet made its final flight to San Diego. The ministry later sold its Gulfstream G-V jet identified by the tail number N279PH.)
In a private discussion with Trinity Foundation investigator Barry Bowen, Puzio suggested that Joni might be visiting Oasis of Hope Cancer Center, located across the Mexican border in Tijuana.
Puzio’s theory was based on the idea that Joni would be interested in holistic health and alternatives to chemotherapy. Oasis of Hope’s cancer specialist and clinic director Dr. Francisco Contreras, an advocate for alternative cancer treatments, appeared on Daystar.
Neither Trinity Foundation nor Puzio reported the cancer theory at that time, believing it would not be appropriate to report the speculation without additional evidence.
While various news media and YouTubers have speculated that Joni had bone cancer, Daystar has not confirmed it. The website Factually searched for but found no independent confirmation of Joni having cancer.
On April 6th, Joni’s husband Doug Weiss appeared on the Daystar TV program MinistryNow. Weiss told the viewers, “I want you to pray for Joni. You may have noticed she hasn’t been on the show recently. She injured her back recently and is healing from two hairline fractures on her spine.”
On the day Joni died, Daystar posted on Facebook, “Prior to her recent back injury, Lamb had been dealing with serious health matters that she chose to face head on and in private. The back injury compounded those challenges and led to a more serious medical situation than anyone had anticipated.”
Joni’s Successor
In her autobiography Through the Storm, Joni wrote about God calling her family to ministry. “In March 1983, seven months after our wedding, we were in the Holy Land, a trip gifted to us by a pastor close to Marcus. While we were there, the Lord spoke to Marcus on the Mount of Olives and instructed us to get involved in Christian television.”
Starting with one TV station, the Lamb family eventually built Daystar into the world’s second largest religious TV network.
Daystar’s parent organization is Word of God Fellowship Incorporated (WOFGI), a non-profit formed in Georgia. WOGFI is governed by a small board of directors, which will determine Joni’s successor.
In 2024, WOGFI amended its governing documents, its articles of incorporation, requiring the non-profit to have between 3 to 5 board members.
WOGFI does not list board member names on its website and instead, provides the state of Georgia a list of only officer names.
In deciding the successor of Joni, the board of directors will likely decide from one of three options: a Lamb family member such as Rachel Lamb Brown, a current Daystar official such as CFO Arnold Torres, or conduct a CEO executive search to find an ideal replacement.
Each option has potentially negative outcomes. The website Bible Truths reports, “It takes a special anointing and calling from the Holy Spirit to be a godly leader. It is rare for children to share the same gift and calling. It can happen. But it shouldn’t be expected.”
Management and leadership experts have studied the differences between the first-generation founders of ministries and big businesses and the succeeding generation of leadership.
Investor Paul Graham has written, “In effect there are two different ways to run a company: founder mode and manager mode.”
The managers that follow Joni and Marcus are unlikely to make the kinds of sacrifices that Daystar’s founders made in the 1980s.
Some Christian YouTubers are advocating for Jonathan Lamb to be appointed as Daystar’s CEO. It was Marcus’ desire to see his son eventually run Daystar.
In 2021, Marcus emailed his family, “So if I precede Joni in death, then my directive is that Joni will replace me as the head of Daystar. I further direct that if Joni passes, or retires, then Jonathan Lamb will become the head of Daystar.”
In preparation for this position, Jonathan obtained a business degree from Oral Roberts University.
However, Marcus’ letter is not legally binding. Daystar’s board of directors has the liberty to appoint a different CEO/president.
Whoever becomes Daystar’s next CEO faces difficult challenges.
Trinity Foundation president Pete Evans says, “Daystar needs to clean up its programming schedule and remove the prosperity gospel grifters using religion for financial gain.” Evans believes Jonathan Lamb would be an ideal successor, following Joni Lamb’s death.
Daystar’s current programming lineup includes televangelists living extravagantly such as Rod Parsley and Creflo Dollar, as well as the deceased Bible prophecy teacher Hal Lindsey. From 2013 to the present, Hal and his wife Jo Lynne Lindsey, received close to $20 million in compensation from their ministry.
It could be a while before a replacement to Joni is named.
Marcus died on November 30, 2021. Four months later, WOGFI submitted its annual registration to the Georgia Secretary of State website, listing Joni as the corporation’s new president.
Trinity Foundation submitted the following questions to Daystar’s media contact pertaining to the issue of succession. If we receive a response, we will update this article.
- Has the Daystar board of directors named a new president to run the network?
- If not, is Arnold Torres serving as Daystar’s top official until a replacement for Joni is announced?
- If no president has been named, is the Daystar board of directors planning to conduct a CEO executive search?