Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the CBS Media Networks Corporation division of Skydance Corporation. Launched on April 1, 1991 and based in Manhattan, New York City, it broadcasts comedy programming in the form of original, licensed and syndicated television series, stand-up comedy specials, and feature films. The channel’s prime target demographic is more mature audiences.
, Comedy Central is available to approximately 68 million pay television households in the United States, down from its 2011 peak of 99 million households.
History 1989–1991: The Comedy Channel and Ha! On November 15, 1989, Time-Life, the owners of HBO, launched The Comedy Channel as the first cable channel devoted exclusively to comedy-based programming. On April 1, 1990, Viacom (who owned MTV, VH1, Showtime and Nickelodeon) launched a rival channel called Ha! that featured reruns of situation comedies and some original sketch comedy.
The Comedy Channel's programs were broadcast from the HBO Downtown Studios at 120 East 23rd Street in Manhattan. The format prior to the merger with Ha! included several original and unconventional programs such as Onion World with Rich Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as laid-back variety/talk shows hosted by comedians, including The Sweet Life with Rachel Sweet, Night After Night with Allan Havey, Sports Monster, and The Higgins Boys and Gruber, the latter of whom performed sketches in between showings of vintage television series like Supercar, Clutch Cargo, and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.
The standard format for The Comedy Channel's shows usually involved the various hosts introducing clips culled from the acts of stand-up comedians as well as classic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Young Frankenstein and Kentucky Fried Movie, presented in a style similar to music videos. In the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without "host segments" were dubbed Short Attention Span Theater. In 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced. Comedian Marc Maron also hosted the series.
While The Comedy Channel broadcast mostly low-budget original programming, Ha!'s schedule featured sitcom and sketch comedy reruns (many of which had been previously licensed for sister network Nick at Nite) as well as complete 90-minute reruns of Saturday Night Live from the sixth through 16th seasons.
After two years of limited distribution, the two channels merged into one, relaunching on April 1, 1991, as CTV: The Comedy Network. On June 1, 1991, the network changed its name to Comedy Central to prevent issues with the Canadian broadcast television network CTV, which would eventually be its Canadian content partner through The Comedy Network when that channel started operations six years later.
Comedy Partners was originally a partnership of Home Box Office, Inc., the subsidiary of Time Warner that owned The Comedy Channel and HBO's half and Viacom Hearty Ha! Ha! LLC, the subsidiary that owned Ha! and Viacom's half of the network during its first years on air. Viacom bought out AOL Time Warner's half in April 2003 for $1.23 billion. Despite HBO's exit from the venture, the Paramount Media Networks division in charge of Comedy Central is still called Comedy Partners, currently being a partnership between Viacom International, copyright holder of the company's assets and Viacom Hearty Ha! Ha! LLC, the subsidiary that owned Ha! and Viacom's original half of the network. (see "Current Owner(s) Information")
1991–2000 From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, much of the programming on Comedy Central and its predecessors consisted of comedy films, sitcom reruns, half-hour comedy specials, and clip shows featuring top comedians. With the exception for the cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000, the channel had a relatively small viewership. A notable early success was Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, which after showing promise on Comedy Central was quickly snapped up by ABC. Additionally, The Daily Show had got its start with original host Craig Kilborn, although it would take a few more years for the show to reach high popularity (and a shift toward a focus on political humor) with the introduction of Jon Stewart in 1999 (who was former co-host of Short Attention Span Theater from 1991).
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was also a notable original program from this era, as well as the game show Win Ben Stein's Money. Successful non-original programming included Canadian comedy group The Kids in the Hall and British shows such as the British edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (the predecessor of the American version, featuring much of the same American cast as would later be seen in the U.S.) and the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Some later seasons of AbFab, as it was informally known, were partially financed by Comedy Central. Comedy Central also had the national rights to broadcast reruns of Seattle's Almost Live! between 1992 and 1993.
The channel made a breakthrough when South Park premiered in 1997. Being one of the first major basic cable shows to carry the TV-MA rating for mature audiences, the show was considered too controversial to be picked up by any mainstream network; For example, Fox (known for The Simpsons) refused to pick up the series due to the over-the-top offensive content at the time. As word of mouth spread, the number of people who requested that Comedy Central should be added to their cable providers increased, and the channel became available in over 50% of American homes by 1998.
2000–2011 On October 30, 2000, Comedy Central introduced a modernized version of its globe logo, by straightening and modernizing the buildings as well as removing the transmitter and marquee. The management of the network said that the transmitter of the 1991 logo was said to "communicate the 1950s broadcast era". In 2002, Comedy Central Records was formed as a means of releasing albums by comedians that have appeared on the network.
By 2003, Viacom gained full ownership of Comedy Central, and since 2003, Comedy Central has created a tradition of roasting comedians in the style of the New York Friars' Club roasts. During these roasts, friends of the roastee, along with other comedians, take turns making fun of the roastee, the other roasters, and occasionally audience members. So far, the roastees have included Denis Leary, Jeff Foxworthy, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget, Larry the Cable Guy, Joan Rivers, Rob Reiner, David Hasselhoff, Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, Roseanne Barr, James Franco, Justin Bieber, Rob Lowe, Bruce Willis, and Alec Baldwin.
The success of South Park, despite its mature content, encouraged the network to continue to push the limits on adult language. Every late Friday (early Saturday morning) and Saturday night (early Sunday morning) at 1 a.m. ET/PT, a movie, comedy special, or animated program is shown unedited for language as part of a block called the Secret Stash. It premiered on July 4, 2003, with the unedited cable television debut of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Though no language is censored on the Secret Stash, most nudity in the programs is still edited out, except for limited nudity allowed in animated programs such as Drawn Together, and rear nudity.
Around late 2004, it was reported that the four highest-rated shows on Comedy Central were, in descending order, South Park, Chappelle's Show, The Daily Show and Reno 911!. Shortly thereafter, Dave Chappelle backed out of the much-anticipated third season of Chappelle's Show.Comedy Central to air Chappelle remainders , MSNBC, December 12, 2005. Meanwhile, The Daily Show continued to climb in the ratings. In October 2005, on the occasion of a new three-year contract for South Park and the launch of Daily Show spin-off The Colbert Report, it was reported that South Park and The Daily Show were the two highest-rated shows on Comedy Central. Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog was reported as saying that he hoped to continue to air new seasons of South Park forever, and that The Colbert Report fulfilled a long-held plan to extend the Daily Show brand.
On April 5, 2006, in a controversial two-part episode arc titled "Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II", South Park touched the issue of the recent protest over the Danish cartoon drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The image of Muhammad did not appear in the episode. The episode also mocked fellow cartoon Family Guy. On April 13, 2006, Comedy Central issued a statement which appears to confirm that the network prohibited the show's creators from airing an image of Muhammad. The statement reads, "In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision." An anonymous source close to the show indicated that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were informed of the policy several weeks earlier and wrote this story arc in protest. This was a change of policy for Comedy Central, having allowed South Park to portray an image of Muhammad in an earlier episode, "Super Best Friends". Oddly enough, an image of Muhammad was still briefly visible in the opening credits of the "Cartoon Wars" episodes (the image had been there as a call-back to "Super Best Friends").
On January 15, 2007, MTV Networks International launched Comedy Central in Germany which is available for free throughout Europe. The channel airs 33 shows either dubbed in German or subtitled while also airing locally produced shows. On April 30, Dutch channel The Box was relaunched as the Dutch version of Comedy Central during the primetime and overnight hours timesharing with Nickelodeon. On May 1, 2007, Comedy Central expanded to Italy, replacing Paramount Comedy.
On June 27, 2007, CTVglobemedia-owned networks CTV and The Comedy Network obtained the exclusive Canadian rights to the entire Comedy Central library of past and current programs on all electronic platforms, under a multi-year agreement with Viacom, expanding on past programming agreements between the two channels. Canadian users attempting to visit Comedy Central websites were redirected to The Comedy Network's website. The Canadian channel retains its brand name, but the agreement is otherwise very similar to the earlier CTV–Viacom deal for MTV in Canada.CTV Strikes Multi-Platform Content Deal With Comedy Central , CTV press release, June 27, 2007 As of 2011, this geocaching no longer applies and both the Comedy Central and The Comedy Network websites can be accessed worldwide, except for videos which remain only accessible within each respective country.
In December 2007, Comedy Central picked up a show hosted by Lewis Black called Lewis Black's Root of All Evil,tvsquad.com Comedy Central picks up Lewis Black's show which debuted in March 2008. On January 9, 2008, it was announced that Comedy Central and MTV would allow the streaming its programs online for free starting in February that year. On January 24, Scott Landsman became the Vice President of Original Programming and Development at the network.
On March 27, 2008, the Swedish Radio and TV Authority approved an application from Comedy Central regarding being allowed to air television programs in Sweden. The grant allowed Comedy Central to broadcast on the terrestrial television network between January 1, 2009, and March 31, 2014, after which a new request had to be submitted to continue broadcasting. Comedy Central's U.S. flagship network picked up a remake of The Gong Show hosted by Dave Attell, star of his former self-titled Comedy Central series Insomniac, which debuted in July 2008. Another new show called Reality Bites Back premiered after The Gong Show with Dave Attell.