‘Crank Yankers’ Revival Renewed at Comedy Central

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Comedy Central is giving its audience more “Crank Yankers.”

The network has ordered 20 more episodes of the comedy puppet show from Jimmy Kimmel’s Kimmelot production banner. New episodes from the original 20-episode order will continue to air from March 17.

“The successful return of ‘Crank Yankers’ in 2019 showed that the series is a timeless classic,” said Sarah Babineau, head of content and creative enterprises. “We can’t wait to see what America’s favorite dirty-talking pranksters have in store for next season!”

“Crank Yankers” originally aired on Comedy Central from 2002-2005 before being briefly brought back on MTV2 in 2007. Kimmel, the original series co-creator, is an executive producer on the updated version. Fellow co-creators Adam Carolla and Daniel Kellison are also executive producers, while Jonathan Kimmel serves as showrunner and executive producer.

“We are thrilled that ‘Crank Yankers’ has been welcomed back so warmly and look forward to getting back to this important work,” said .

According to Comedy Central, the return of “Crank Yankers” in Sept. 2019 was the network’s best series launch in three years. Last year, the show reached a total of just under nine million total viewers after seven days of delayed viewing, according to Nielsen figures.

The current season features a voice cast which includes some of the biggest names in comedy, including Kimmel, Tracy Morgan, Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Silverman, Lil Rel Howery, Jeff Ross, Kathy Griffin, Will Forte, Nick Kroll, Chelsea Peretti, Aubrey Plaza, Nikki Glaser, Ron Funches, Bobby Moynihan, Abbi Jacobson, Arturo Castro, and Natasha Leggero.

“Crank Yankers” is produced in association with ITV America, with its CEO David George also on board as an EP.