Comedy rolls out new season

The Comedy Network is going for more laughs as it slowly but steadily unveils its new lineup for the season, including three new original productions.

After launching a handful of shows over the week of Sept. 13 (including the new season of Open Mike with Mike Bullard and hot acquisition The Daily Show), Comedy’s vp of programming Ed Robinson says the next batch of returning shows, including Comedy Now! and Double Exposure, are set to start up on Oct. 16 and 17.

‘Last year we strategically launched a lot of series on a staggered basis,’ says Robinson. ‘I really liked that approach because it gave us a chance to do more specific promotions for each of the shows over a longer period of time.’

Comedy is set to debut three original productions this season. The first, known as Buzz, is another cable access show (a la Tom Green) that in the eyes of Comedy just got too damn good and deserved a bigger audience. Starring Daryn Jones and Morgan (Mista Mo) Smith, Buzz will go to air with 13 episodes, airing weekly beginning later in the fall.

Slightly Bent tv is another Comedy original, billed as an edgy and off-beat sketch comedy program out of Vancouver. Six half-hour episodes have been ordered and will begin airing on Nov. 7.

Also, Internet Slutts is coming later in the fall. The weekly half-hour program (for which 18 episodes have been ordered) will feature puppets Wally (a talking penis) and Murk who surf the Net.

Also new to Comedy is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a daily half-hour comedy news program. Robinson says he has been after the series from Comedy Central for the last six or seven months.

Comedy has also picked up Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and The Tom Green Show, which was a Comedy original last season.

Green, along with sidekick Glenn Humplik, has taken up with mtv and produces his show from there, where his brand of outrageous comedic pranks has really hit a nerve with the youth of America.

‘I’m surprised, and I know Tom is equally surprised, by how this has just taken off like a rocket ship in the States,’ says Robinson, who adds that his success is well-deserved. ‘He is a really hard working and totally dedicated to what he wants to do.’