JEFF DUNHAM AND HIS ECLECTIC CAST OF CHARACTERS COMES TO COMEDY CENTRAL� ON OCTOBER 22 WITH THE NEW SERIES "THE JEFF DUNHAM SHOW"
Dunham's Most Recent Stand-Up Special Was COMEDY CENTRAL's Most-Watched Telecast Of All Time With 6.6 Million Viewers
PASADENA, July 29, 2009 -- Jeff Dunham and his infamous characters, Walter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Peanut, Bubba J and Jos� Jalape�o on a Stick find a home at COMEDY CENTRAL with the new series "The Jeff Dunham Show" debuting on Thursday, October 22.
"The Jeff Dunham Show" is a new half-hour comedy-variety show from Levity Entertainment starring ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham. The series will feature Dunham and his hilarious cast of characters, including Walter, Peanut, Bubba J, and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, performing in front of a live studio audience as well as interacting on location with real people in and around Los Angeles.
Building upon the breakout success of Dunham's COMEDY CENTRAL stand-up specials, the most recent of which, "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special," was the most-watched telecast in COMEDY CENTRAL history with 6.6 million viewers, "The Jeff Dunham Show" takes his beloved characters off the stage and places them into real world scenarios including Walter and Jeff visiting a licensed psychologist to save their relationship, Bubba J taking aim at a real rifle range and Achmed attempting to sign up new recruits at an actual job fair.
"The Jeff Dunham Show" is the first part of a wide-ranging, fully-integrated, multi-platform initiative that COMEDY CENTRAL signed earlier this year with Dunham that also includes a stand-up special, major-market stand-up tour, DVDs and a consumer products partnership. His one-hour COMEDY CENTRAL Original Stand-up Special will air in early fall 2010, with COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment and Levity producing and distributing DVDs of both the series and stand-up special, as well as a colossal, nationwide COMEDY CENTRAL Live stand-up concert tour with over 60 performances. The tour kicks off September 2010 and a major consumer products partnership in conjunction with the series and tour will hit the marketplace in 2010. Each of the deal's elements will feature unique components for reaching the COMEDY CENTRAL audience wherever it lives. This deal also opens the door to future digital projects with Dunham and comedycentral.com.
According to the concert industry publication, Pollstar, Dunham is the top-grossing stand-up act in North America and he and his cast of characters have amassed legions of loyal fans all over the world. In the spring of 2009, Dunham completed his first European tour, selling out venues from London to Helsinki. A pop culture phenomenon, Dunham has sold over four million DVDs and has received more than 350 million views on YouTube, making him one of the most-viewed entertainers of all time. As well as having the most-watched telecast in COMEDY CENTRAL's history, the DVD of Jeff Dunham's "A Very Special Christmas Special" hit quadruple platinum (sales of over 400,000) in its first two weeks. His previous DVD, "Spark of Insanity," received the best reviews of any DVD on Amazon.com in 2008. His CD album, "Don't Come Home for Christmas," went to #1 on the iTunes CD sales chart as well as Top 10 on Billboard's independent chart.
Credits for The "Jeff Dunham Show" include Jeff Dunham, Ross McCall, Aaron Peters, Judi Brown-Marmel, Robert Hartmann and Stu Schreiberg as executive producers and Gary Mann and Monika Zielinska as executives in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL. Long time writing collaborator, Jeff Rothpan, will serve as supervising producer.
COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 95 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is www.comedycentral.com.
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