While The Comedy Channel broadcast mostly low-budget original programming, Ha!’s schedule featured sitcom and sketch comedy reruns (many of which had been previously licensed for sister network Nick at Nite) as well as complete 90-minute reruns of Saturday Night Live from the sixth through 16th seasons.Īfter two years of limited distribution, the two channels merged into one, relaunching on Apas CTV: The Comedy Network it later changed its name to Comedy Central on June 1, 1991, and the name, “CTV”, derives from the combination of the names Channel and TV. Comedian Marc Maron also hosted the series. In 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced. In the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without “host segments” were dubbed Short Attention Span Theater. The standard format for The Comedy Channel’s shows usually involved the various hosts introducing clips culled from the acts of stand-up comedians as well as classic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Young Frankenstein and Kentucky Fried Movie, presented in a style similar to music videos. The format prior to the merger with Ha! included several original and unconventional programs such as Onion World with Rich Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as laid-back variety/talk shows hosted by comedians, including The Sweet Life with Rachel Sweet, Night After Night with Allan Havey, Sports Monster, and The Higgins Boys and Gruber, the latter of whom performed sketches in between showings of vintage television series like Supercar, Clutch Cargo, and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. The Comedy Channel’s programs were broadcast from the HBO Downtown Studios at 120 East 23rd Street in Manhattan. On April 1, 1990, Viacom (who owned MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon) launched a rival channel called Ha! that featured reruns of situation comedies and some original sketch comedy. On November 15, 1989, Time-Life, owners of HBO, launched The Comedy Channel as the first cable channel devoted exclusively to comedy-based programming. The international channels are operated by ViacomCBS Networks International.ġ989–1991: Pre-launch as The Comedy Channel Since the early 2000s, Comedy Central has expanded globally with localized channels in Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, Middle East, and Africa. It is available to approximately 86.723 million households in the United States as of September 2018. The channel is geared for mature audiences and carries comedy programming in the form of both original, licensed, and syndicated series, stand-up comedy specials, and feature films. Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by ViacomCBS through its domestic network division’s MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan.
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