Comedy Central to bring India-produced content

While Comedy Central is known to air light-hearted content like sitcoms, taking a leap further, Comedy Central will now add local shows – ‘The OTHER Week that Wasn’t’ and ‘The Living Room’ along with the international content. Launching this November and December are the famous news spoof hosted by Cyrus Broacha, in ‘The Other Week That Wasn’t’, and a fresh new show by stand-up comedian Kenneth Sebastian, ‘The Living Room’.

Viewers can now enjoy more of Cyrus’ tongue-in-cheek spoofs and mouthful of puns through his show ‘The Other Week That Wasn’t’ on Comedy Central, which mulls over fashion, entertainment & sports.  Watch Cyrus, Kunal Vijaykar & Kaniez along with their team of misfit journalists present the news of the week like you’ve never seen before! Starting16th November at 8 pm on Comedy Central. Adgully caught up with Ferzad Palia, EVP and Business Head, English entertainment, Viacom 18 to know more about the same.

Speaking about the idea to come up with two new local shows, Palia said, “It was entire team effort behind the whole idea for original content. Comedy Central in every market has done local shows. It has always been the plan in India; it’s just that it took a little longer in the country. In spite different things in the past, we have done a few things to experiment what works best for the Indian audience. Of course it also took us a while to scout for talent in the English comedy space which is not so easily found as compared to Hindi comedians. While we have the best of the international shows on our channel, local shows also add relevance and connect to the market. We’ve done a lot with stand up comedians on ground and this is first time that we are doing it with them on air.”

However, will these shows not confuse the Indian audience in terms of what content the channel is showing? Responding to this Palia said, “The audience has probably been waiting for local shows on Comedy Central. Eventually this had to happen. So there is no question of being confused”.

‘The OTHER Week That Wasn’t’ marks the debut of Cyrus Broacha on Comedy Central. However, Palia mentions that Broacha has been associated with the channel for a long time now. “He has been helping us with direction, back end and other activities of our channels. It’s just that now we are giving him a break on our channel. The name of his show is “The OTHER Week that Wasn’t” which is a similar name to his other show. The difference is that this show will not talk so much about politics while the latter does a lot. It’s always been great to work with him as he has been one of the rarest talents in the world and it’s a delight working with him”.

While Cyrus Broacha has been associated with the channel for a while, Kenneth Sebastian who is hosting their second local show “The Living Room” is new to this channel. Commenting on the same Palia said, “While we already have an established comedian we wanted to look for new talent and that is when we found this Bangalore boy, Kenneth Sebastian. He has been doing a lot of ‘Improv’ and this is the first time that we are experimenting Improv on television”.

Speaking about new talent in the English comedian’s space, Palia informed, “We have been scouting throughout the country to look for various kind of talent, be it actors or writers. We are looking at the entire ecosystem to be built. We have started with Kenneth and depending on how the audience responses, we will then take further steps, be it looking for new comedians, or maybe come with a reality show. It could be anything. We are waiting for these shows to have a good start and then we will look at future prospects.

Comedy Central has always been aggressive in its marketing strategy in the country. While these two shows will also see the same aggression on the digital space, the aggression is less towards the outdoor media. “There are going to be a lot of social engagements and ads on the digital front and you will see less of outdoor”, he added.

Speaking about how the year has been for the brand, he said, “The year has been really good. We have increased our advertiser’s base significantly. In terms of shows we have grown a lot with our newer international shows like ‘About a Boy’ and many more. | By: Archit Ambekar | @aambarchit

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