Comedy Central Launches In-House Studio, Sets Deals with ‘Broad City,’ ‘Daily Show’ Producers
By Rachel Yang
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Comedy Central has launched a new in-house studio, Productions, and a batch of first-look development deals with producers from some of its key shows, including “Broad City” and “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.”
The deals, announced Wednesday, include pacts with Paulilu, Anthony King, Irony Point, and Stuart Miller. Paulilu is the production company from Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs, who served as executive producers and writers on “Broad City” and the film “Rough Night.” King wrote the musical “Beetlejuice,” and was a writer and executive producer on shows like “Silicon Valley” and “Search Party.”
Irony Point is the production company run by Daniel Powell and Alex Bach. The company’s TV and streaming credits include Comedy Central’s “Inside Amy Schumer” and “Ugly Americans,” and Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” and “The Break with Michelle Wolf.” Miller is an executive producer on the upcoming series “Klepper” on Comedy Central, with credits on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper.”
CCP isn’t the first in-house studio from a Viacom brand; MTV Studios launched in 2018, and studio units at BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount TV have all leveraged the brands to create original programming for third-party platforms and internal destinations. This is also seen as a profitable strategy so that Comedy Central and Viacom can remain producers and financial backers even if talent were to create projects for other companies.
“For years we’ve been successfully expanding the trustworthy Comedy Central brand beyond linear, extending to digital, social, podcasts, radio and live events. The next logical step is to establish Comedy Central Productions,” said Kent Alterman, the president of Comedy Central, Paramount Network and TV Land. “By leaning into our development expertise and production capabilities, and by partnering with some of the smartest and funniest talent in comedy, this is another way we can thrive. And putting more great comedy in the world couldn’t hurt.”
These recent deals join existing development deals for the Comedy Central network with “Broad City” creators Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Roy Wood, Jr., Jim Jefferies, and Chris Distefano. The studio-production announcement is the latest move the brand has taken in expanding its territory, following live events like Clusterfest and Comedy Central Radio on Sirius XM.
Comedy Central has also been home to CC Studios, an in-house creative initiative for digital content.
