May 02

Chris Hardwick to Join Comedy Central’s Late Night Block.

Comedy Central is expanding its late-night block with a new show hosted by comedian/producer Chris Hardwick and co-produced by Funny Or Die. The untitled show, which will launch in the fall, will air four nights a week at midnight, following The Colbert Report, giving the network a 11 PM-12:30 AM block anchored by The Daily Show. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant will serve as executive producers/showrunners on the Chris Hardwick show, returning to Comedy Central, where they co-created and starred on the cult series Reno 911!

The show, Comedy Central’s first midnight strip, will be formatted as a comedic panel show that will have a heavy social-media presence integrated throughout. It is produced by Comedy Central and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funny Or Die, with Brillstein Entertainment Partners expected to executive produce along with Serious Business (Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler, Jon Zimelis) and Nerdist Industries, Hardwick and Peter Levin’s production company for multi-platform genre and pop culture content. In addition to the 11:30 PM broadcast late-night talk shows, Comedy Central’s Chris Hardwick program will face another new midnight cable strip — TBS’ series toplined by comedian Pete Holmes, which also is slated to launch in the fall and air four nights a week.

Source: Deadline.

DirecTV to Drop 26 Viacom Channels at Midnight on Tuesday, July 10.

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Viacom’s distribution agreement with DirecTV is set to expire at midnight on Tuesday, July 10. We’ve been negotiating for months and even offered DirecTV an extension past the agreement’s original June 30th expiration date. As recently as today, we made significant economic movement in direct conversations with DirecTV.

Continue reading “DirecTV to Drop 26 Viacom Channels at Midnight on Tuesday, July 10.” »

Comedy Central Ends 2011 as the #1 Entertainment Network in Cable Among Men 18 – 34 and Men 18 – 24.

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Comedy Central Logo In Late Night, history was made as the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” finished as the #1 late night talk show among adults 18-49 across the full calendar year, the first time any talk show other than “The Tonight Show” has finished as the leader in this key demographic. Together with the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning “The Colbert Report,” COMEDY CENTRAL’s late night talk show combination were the Top 2 most-watched and highest-rated late night talk shows in all of television with adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-24.

“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”

  • Posted a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating for the year and averaged 2.3 million total viewers per episode.
  • #1 late night talk show in all of television among adults 18-49, adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-24.
  • #1 late night talk show in cable among total viewers.
  • Versus 2010, “The Daily Show” was up in total viewers (+7%) and all key demos: adults 18-49 (+6%); men 18-34 (+2%); men 18-24 (+4%).
  • With an average of 2.3 million unique monthly visitors, TheDailyShow.com posted a +12% increase vs. 2010 and continued to have an average audience greater than that of the combined unique monthly visitors to Conan, Fallon, Leno, Letterman and Kimmel.

“The Colbert Report”

  • Posted a 0.8 adults 18-49 rating for the year and averaged 1.5 million total viewers per episode.
  • #2 late night talk show in all of television among adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-24.
  • #2 late night talk show in cable among total viewers.
  • Versus 2010, “The Colbert Report” was up in total viewers (+2%) and all key demos: adults 18-49 (+2%); men 18-34 (+1%); men 18-24 (+0%).
  • ColbertNation.com averaged 1.2 million unique monthly visitors (up +13%), finishing second to TheDailyShow.com and far ahead of the rest of the late night talk show competition, more than doubling the average unique monthly visitors to Fallon, Leno, Letterman and Kimmel.

Full Article: TV by the Numbers.