COMEDY CENTRAL ORDERS RORY SCOVEL’S ROBBIE TO SERIES

• Scripted Series Stars Rory Scovel, Beau Bridges, Sasheer Zamata and Mary Holland
• Robbie is Written by Rory Scovel and Anthony King, Produced by Gary Sanchez Productions

LOS ANGELES, November 29, 2018– Comedy Central is bringing Rory Scovel into its scripted lineup, as the #1 brand in comedy ordered eight episodes of Robbie, it was announced today by Sarah Babineau and Jonas Larsen, Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Heads of Talent and Development for Comedy Central.

Robbie is a half-hour scripted series starring Rory Scovel (I Feel Pretty, Rory Scovel Tries Stand Up For The First Time). Rory plays a small town youth league basketball coach living in his father’s shadow, until he realizes he has a son of his own who can lead him to greatness. Robbie is written by Rory Scovel and Anthony King (Broad City, Silicon Valley). Co-starring with Rory are Beau Bridges, who plays his father, Sasheer Zamata and Mary Holland. Scovel, King, and Scott Moran are executive producers. Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Betsy Koch and Owen Burke are executive producers for Gary Sanchez Productions. Monika Zielinska and Rachel Olson are Executives in Charge of Robbie for Comedy Central. Scovel previously appeared on the series premiere of Comedy Central’s stand-up show The Half Hour.

“I can’t wait to get started. I think our cast and entire production team is insanely talented,” said Scovel. “It’s exciting to work with Comedy Central and it’s especially awesome because they said they would never cancel us.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Rory Scovel, an incredible storyteller and comedic visionary,” said Larsen and Babineau. “We love Rory’s ability to find the heart and humor in characters. This sports-obsessed, small town Southern setting is the perfect place to explore his genius.”

Looking ahead, Comedy Central has a stacked year to offer fans with a programming slate that will feature new and returning series including: the premieres of scripted half-hour series Awkwafina, The Other Two and South Side; sketch-comedy series Alternatino with Arturo Castro; stand-up series This Week at the Comedy Cellar and The New Negroes; new series from Jordan Klepper and Anthony Jeselnik; along with the final season of Broad City, the return of the critically acclaimed Corporate, and new seasons of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Tosh.0, Drunk History, The Jim Jefferies Show and much, much more.

Heading into 2019 Comedy Central is riding with momentum, finishing the recently-concluded fiscal year with ratings up +6% among Adults 18-49 – led by the highest-rated year among Women 18-49 (+13%) since 2014 – to earn its largest demo share in total day in three years. Comedy Central also registered massive multiplatform growth across the year with nearly 4.7 billion videos (8 billion minutes of content) streamed across digital and social platforms, year-over-year increases of +63% and +57%, respectively.

Comedy Central gives audiences access to a world of super funny, personally relatable, culturally relevant, and provocative comedy that tells the funny truths of life, every day and everywhere. From award-winning late-night, scripted and animated series to stand-up specials, short-form and sketch, Comedy Central has it all. A subsidiary of Viacom Inc., Comedy Central is available to more than 300 million households in over 150 countries across the globe. 

COMEDY CENTRAL® ANNOUNCES 2018-2019 DEVELOPMENT SLATE INCLUDING TWO SERIES PICK-UPS AND FIVE PILOT ORDERS

• Series Greenlights Include Alternatino with Arturo Castro and This Week at the Comedy Cellar

NEW YORK, April 17, 2018 — Comedy Central today released its 2018-2019 development slate, including two series pick-ups and five pilot orders. The slate is headlined by orders for sketch series Alternatino with Arturo Castro and stand-up series This Week at the Comedy Cellar and was announced by Sarah Babineau and Jonas Larsen, executive vice presidents and co-heads of talent and development, Comedy Central.

“With an exciting mix of established and emerging talent, our current development slate continues Comedy Central’s rich legacy of working with the most distinct and talented comedic voices,” said Babineau and Larsen.

On Alternatino with Arturo Castro: “Arturo’s abilities as an actor knows no bounds, which combined with his stellar comedic instincts and unique point of view, makes Alternatino with Arturo Castro a potent and hilarious series in the grand tradition of Comedy Central’s sketch shows.”

On This Week at the Comedy Cellar: “We’re thrilled to partner with the Comedy Cellar and provide fans of comedy a look at the hot button issues of the week through the lens of the best comics in the world straight from the legendary and beloved NYC comedy club.”

Information on the 2017-2018 development slate follows:

SERIES GREENLIGHTS

• Alternatino with Arturo Castro – Created by and starring Arturo Castro (Broad City, Narcos) and directed by Nick Jasenovec (Detroiters, Broad City), Alternatino with Arturo Castro is a sketch show based on Arturo’s experiences as a Latino millennial in the United States.  The series is executive produced by Castro, Jasenovec, Sam Saifer, David Martin, Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner for Avalon Television, with Avalon Television producing. Arturo is represented by WME, Avalon and Melissa Fox at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush and Keller. Jose Acevedo and Ari Pearce are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.
• This Week at the Comedy Cellar – This Week at the Comedy Cellar takes an unprecedented look inside New York City’s hottest comedy club and the country’s top comedians as they tackle all the freshest topics of the week. Each half-hour episode will showcase the best topical jokes generated in the Comedy Cellar in the days immediately leading up to premiere. Accompanying the stand-up is a one-of-a-kind behind the scenes look at the prestigious “comics’ table,” where comics debate the week’s topics and discuss the origins of their material. Plucked straight from the headlines and filtered through the eyes of the country’s best comedians, this is a front row seat to where the best stand-up comedy begins. Executive producers include Noam Dworman (for the Comedy Cellar), Ray Ellin, Michael Hirschorn and Jessica Antonini, (both for Ish Entertainment) and Ian Gelfand. Christian McLaughlin and Anne Harris are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.

PILOT DEVELOPMENT

(all titles listed are working titles)

• Mall Town USA, previously announced, Mall Town USA is an animated comedy that follows the afterschool misadventures of a 13-year-old girl navigating the complexities of life in the classic microcosm of American culture that is The Mall. Mall Town USA is written and created by Gabe Liedman (Broad City, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and executive produced by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer.
• Awkwafina is a half hour scripted narrative inspired by Nora Lum’s experiences as a 20-something woman in Queens who strives for a larger than life existence. The show stars Nora, also known as rapper Awkwafina, and includes musical set pieces to embellish the story. Nora has a lead role in upcoming studio films Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. Awkwafina is written by Lum and Teresa Hsiao and is showrun by Karey Dornetto. The series is executive produced by Lum, Dornetto, Peter Principato, Itay Reiss & Principato-Young Entertainment, and co-executive produced by Hsiao. Awkwafina is represented by Principato, UTA, Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
• Robbie is a half hour scripted comedy about an overzealous church-league basketball coach who aspires to restore glory to his rural Georgia town by following in his father’s footsteps as the infamous coach who won two high school basketball championships in the nineties. Rory Scovel, who co-stars alongside Amy Schumer in the upcoming film I Feel Pretty will play the lead. Robbie is written by Scovel and Anthony King. Scovel, Scott Moran, Anthony King and Gary Sanchez Productions will executive produce.
• Kevin vs. Josh is created, written by, and starring Kevin Barnett (Broad City, The Carmichael Show) & Josh Rabinowitz (Broad City, The Carmichael Show), and is executive produced by Jerrod Carmichael, Ari Katcher, Avi Gilbert, Barnett, and Rabinowitz. Based on the real life friendship of Kevin and Josh, the show follows two childhood best friends whose dreams are falling apart. Reunited by their separate but equal failure, they do everything they can to simply make sure their lives are at least better than the other.
• Verified with David Spade is a weekly comedy series that skewers pop culture and news all through the lens of social media. Relying on his legendary wit and sardonic worldview, Spade, in front of a small studio audience, utilizes a mix of original in-studio bits, panel discussion and field pieces to take viewers on a tour of the best (and worst) social media had to offer that week. The series is executive produced by David Spade, Free 90 Media’s Brad Wollack and Tom Brunelle and Brillstein Entertainment’s Alex Murray and Marc Gurvitz.

Available on-air, online and on-the-go via the Comedy Central App, Comedy Central (www.cc.com) is the #1 brand in comedy and is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom. 

Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling entertainment content – including television programs, motion pictures, short-form content, games, consumer products, podcasts, live events and social media experiences – for audiences in 183 countries. Viacom’s media networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, VH1, TV Land, CMT,Logo, Channel 5 (UK), Telefe (Argentina), Colors (India) and Paramount Channel, reach approximately 4.3 billion cumulative television subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. Paramount Television develops, finances and produces original programming for television and digital platforms. For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com. Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom’s blog at blog.viacom.com and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.