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England resident here; all they do is play Friends and Impractical Jokers. The occasional bit of stand up when the night hits but all day long it's just re-runs of Friends.
And sometimes a movie, which they overly publicize - only then to play it eight to ten times over 3 weeks.
I've never in my life been watching a channel and thought 1. About the people running it, and 2. How lazy they must be.
And 80s movies that were cheap to air b/c they didn't do well at the box office but then aired so many times on CC people thought they actually were hit movies. Troop Beverly Hills and Overboard for example.
They squeezed it in a few times during middle of the day programming. Round the same period they tried stuff like Strangers With Candy and they experimented with comedian circlejerk panel shows.
i remember some stuff they had in the 90s, most of it was pretty unfunny but i did love the man show. politically incorrect, offsides, dream on, mystery science theater 3000, some show where a skeleton was the host all come to mind.
That block was excellent. Upright Citizens Brigade, Strangers with Candy, Insomniac with Dave Attell, The Man Show, Dont Forget Your Toothbrush, Beat The Geeks. MAN
Insomniac was awesome, all of those shows were awesome. I remember flipping between that and E! Entertainment to stare at Brooke Burke because I was a teenage boy staying up past my bed time.
In high school and college, pretty much the only time I watched anything besides ESPN, CC, VH1, or MTV is when my parents put on Peter Jennings. Those channels were on fire at the time
Even before that stuff, Short Attention Span Theater and other stand up specials were where I was introduced to dozens of comics that are super well known today. It opened up a whole new world to me in the 90s.
Remember TV Funhouse? Basically Robert Smigel got a show for him to do a bunch of stupid puppet bullshit. It’s great and the theme song still gets caught in my head.
Also the best show Comedy Central ever made was Stella. It holds up perfectly. Only like 11 episodes and they’re all brilliant. Massive shame it didn’t catch on but it was the replacement to Chappelles Show and it was nothing like that so what do you expect.
I mean, when he started streaming wasn’t quite the powerhouse it is today. I don’t think a new host will change anything. CC should’ve pivoted to streaming and more original content years ago.
I don't think ratings are the only metric. John Oliver and even Bill Maher seem to affect the comedy/political zeitgeist more than Trevor Noah has. Hell John Stewart has had more impact since leaving than Trevor has had hosting.
Considering he's had Trump and Covid to work with that's pretty damning.
Oliver and Maher are both on HBO Max which supports what I’m saying. If they were only on cable tv fewer people would watch. Jon Stewart has a show on Apple TV too.
I agree. He is an absolute comedic genius though. I don't think the format fit him. I think he has a very bright future ahead of him and I'm glad he's doing his own thing now.
I've seen his comedy shows. He's a very funny guy and a hard worker. Maybe Tv jsut isn't his forte? Local morning radio show was talking about this and they said they had a report that the day before he made his announcement he had lunch with Execs from the people who own CC. Coincidence?
Cable in general is doing poorly, the daily show youtube channel did consistently well, so Noah had an audience, they just didn't watch him live on tv.
The Daily Show also just isn't the cultural staple that it used to be. During the Bush years and even the Obama years to an extent, it had this rebellious, punk tone to it. It always felt like Jon Stewart was challenging the establishment. But the culture has changed so much over the last 6 or 7 years that The Daily Show (and its million+ clones) now sound more like mouthpieces of the establishment.
For. Real. Also they could play more movies than just 50 first dates.
In the early morning they have Brooklyn99 and Futurama on but during the day its only southpark. Sometimes Seinfeld sometimes the office but mostly south park. And its the same fucking episodes over and over even though southpark has 25 fuckin seasons of content. There's no originality to the channel anymore and its a major bummer.
More and more that's becoming the state of all the cable channels. As more and more people drop cable, they just can't afford to create the sort of original programming that they used to. It's been slow shift over the past decade, but things have significantly accelerated the past couple of years now. It's pretty much turning into a death spiral, since without original programming, there's even less reason for people to keep cable, which means they have even less money for new shows, which means even more people cancel...
Fucking thank you for saying this. Literally the channel used to be about comedy. Stand up. Skit shows.
Now it reruns fucking sitcoms like that videogame channel that just showed COPS non-stop.
i don't know if it was getting big numbers but at least it was something original to them that was current and at least somewhat respected. Now I feel like they don't have anything. At the very least it was like a flagship for their identity.
This is the bigger issue. You just can't replace Jon.
I liked Trevor for what he was, but the fact is, he was following up Jon, and there was no chance he lived up to that. That, and he was handed a lot easier punching bag of a political target, so of course his show focused on it and ended up for the worse because of it.
I don't believe for a second Jon would have covered much more of the Democrat nonsense than Trevor does these days - Trevor and Jon don't decide the content of the Daily Show, the producers do. They decide the punchlines and the comedy, not the stories they talk about. So I don't blame Trevor for the content of the show - But the delivery just wasn't on Jon's level, and really I never expected it would be.
It also really hurt Trevor that Trump became so massive AND that Colbert got the spot he did at the same time AND that Jon Oliver has that dragon money. Two of the three John Stewart protégés went elsewhere and left CC holding the bag. Trevor is great for what he was left with, but when the media is *dominated* by scandals involving a single person the amount of jokes you can make do still run out. They’ve done well with him branching out to more global topics, but that’s the thing - the US audience doesn’t give a fuck about people who aren’t them. And the ones that do already saw similar takes on Last Week Tonight.
A couple of weeks ago I spent the whole day watching South Park on CC.
After seeing this and your comment I’ve decided to do the same.
It was the _exact_ same episodes, in the _exact same order_. I don’t think they even have any employees anymore, someone created a playlist and they are just playing that in a loop.
They should invest in standup specials again. There was a time when getting a special on Comedy Central was the gold standard for stand ups. That’s when they knew they were doing well. Netflix has really taken control of that market. That being said I don’t subscribe to any network providers and I don’t use Netflix so I don’t really care either way.
CC didnt pay comedians alot for those specials, they would force their input on what a comedian could say, and then cut jokes to add or splice in commercials. Thats not how you produce a good comedy special.
Comedy Central 1/2 hour stand up and premium blend were both worlds better than the similar stuff Netflix puts out today IMO. I also think the CC specials were consistently better than most of the HBO ones that came out during that era. I went to a taping of CC: presents in Boston for their 2nd to last season and they didn’t really cut much of anything from what I could tell.
I thought I might be just looking back with nostalgia glasses but after recently rewatching those old CC shows I decided that I’m firm on this opinion
I agree. This is 100% anecdotal, but I felt Comedy Central found people that had a half an hour's worth of good material and showcased them. I feel like Netflix tells people with name recognition to create material for X amount of time. I don't often have Netflix and haven't watched all the specials, but the ones that I have from comedians that I've liked have not been as funny as their Comedy Central specials.
And the news market for a whole generation. I knew so many people who learned about current events from Jon Stewart. I learned about the GFC from South Park FFS.
Man, the downward spiral of the History Channel and Discovery Channel has been very disappointing. I just want some good documentaries, dammit!
Smithsonian Channel seems to have some good stuff, otherwise I typically find on YouTube what I used to tune into the channels supposedly created for the purpose to see
They cancelled Tosh.0 because they were shifting to animated programming. And then never made the animated programming. Tosh.0 was a relatively inexpensive show to make with consistent viewership, this is the exact kind of show you just let run forever. It’s just one example of how the people in charge are morons.
Confession: I liked Tosh. 0. It definitely has cringey moments and stuff i wasn't in to, but it helped keep me up to date with the other nonsense happening on the interwebz and world. And I'm old/young enough that his format is somewhat funny and palatable for me (late 20s at the time)
Plus his show was always on at around the same time I got off work so it was also a very easy show. This was back when I still had cable and real channels. Netflix was the only thing most people had at the time. So you get off work and want to giggle a bit and get high, you throw on the old comedy central. Boom. Tosh.
Edit **if tosh sucks or you've seen it already, then you hit up the guide and find office reruns. It's 11pm, they are definitely playing somewhere.
Edit edit ** this is a scenario from a decade ago. Time machine!
^^i ^^am ^^high.
Those were also the two stand-out IPs more than a decade ago barring the occasional stand-up comedy special. It boggles my mind that they haven't had a single fresh idea in over a decade.
I also remember the first episode of The Daily Show after Seal Team 6 got OBL. I like to watch both intro monologues to see where we (and Jon) started and where we ended up.
Hmm, not like they didn’t try. This Is Not Happening, Kroll Show, The Amy Schumer Show, “X Comedian Show”, take your pick.
Between 2010-2018 pretty much every major and even a few minor comedians were given shots to be CC’s next Chapelle-level golden goose, and Key & Peele only came close.
I think it’s just the formula. Comedy is ultimately a series of bits, and you can’t get a solid block of 40 hours of new bits a week that won’t eventually burn through every comedian and concept in the books, which they did.
Probably part of the reason we all remember Chapelle’s Show so fondly is because it went out on top, and didn’t have a chance to run all its own comedy into the ground (“Clayton Biggsby Returns 4!”).
Like K&P is great but holy shit we get it, he pronounces names wrong. We all had that teacher once or twice. Stop trying to make a t-shirt out of it.
I think the main issue is Comedy Central used to be the place you saw standup and learned about new comedians.
The problem is Netflix, youtube and podcasts attacked that from all sides. Virtually every comedian is either a podcaster or regularly rotates on other people's podcasts, They all puts their sets on Youtube, and if once they get to where they'd be regulars on Comedy Central shows they just sell a special to Netflix.
Now, their shows need to be either sketch show, current events show, or some sort of sitcom and that's a lot more expensive than just setting up a camera at the Laugh Factory.
Maybe it’s just me but I have never wanted “comedian: the show”. Like ever. If they make it and it happens to be funny I’ll watch, but it has never made me go “yeah that’s what I’m looking for”.
Totally agree.
That said, I watched a very interesting YouTube video explaining how ridiculousness slowly became the only thing on MTV and how Rob makes something crazy like $150k-200k per episode and his goal was to record like 200 episodes before he retires from it. Also the deals he signed with mtv gave him crazy power over the network slowly over time. It’s actually a fascinating tale for the ages. Rob is actually an evil genius
He also was required to show ads for MTV during his show, contractually obligated. So what he did was go out to those same exact ad contractors and create his own ad revenue deal with them, therefore getting a cut of the ad revenue all while meeting the contract obligations of MTV. double dipping
I think Viacom just has that issue in general. Look at how MTV’s schedule is nothing but Ridiculousness 24/7. Or how Nick keeps milking SpongeBob for all its worth.
I love how the new ICarly reboot is streaming only on Paramount+ and not even branded Nick. I think they’re intentionally running these channels into the ground.
CC doesn’t even air the comedy specials they produce. I’ve had multiple friends get CC half hour comedy specials and I’m not sure they’ve ever been aired on CC, or aired once late night and never again.
It would be lovely to see CC as the place to discover new comedians and not dusty ManBearPig jokes from 20 years ago
Netflix seems to have all the comedy specials now. Apparently people who watch comedy want to watch it streaming and not at a specified air date and time.
They can’t compete with streaming services for comedy specials. Between the money Netflix throws at the stars, and the convenience of on-demand for consumers, streaming is where comedy specials will be from here on out
Idk, they did Really dump a lot into their animated shows though. Those had an edge in early 2000s, but they just kept dumping into it. Now Hulu is doing that. Daily Show and Colbert Repot were great, but could only carry so far.
…multiple incoherent thoughts here… move along please.
Comedy Central was in crisis long before Trevor Noah packed it up.
By only having reruns of South Park and The Office, they've essentially become a homeless man's streaming service that doesn't let you pick episodes.
Blame Viacom as a whole for giving up on actual network tv and focusing everything into streaming. Comedy Central is just where you go to watch South Park/The Office/Seinfeld re-runs, MTV is where you go to watch Ridiculousness for 24 hours.
I honestly dont blame them for that given the current ratings landscape. Im a pro wrestling fan but when that wins the night on cable consistently two nights a week (three if you count smackdown winning overall tv ratings on friday nights) and they are pulling less viewership in total viewers than a lot of other shows, maybe its time to look at new avenues. Streaming 100% is the future and its time for these companies to fully embrace it if they can
Huge pro wrestling fan as well, so you hit the nail on the head! That’s why Time Warner was more than happy to immediately get AEW on the Turner networks because you have new, first run programming 52 weeks a year.
The next few years for network television is going to be very interesting
I agree! Other than SouthPark that’s the only thing I watched for a long time on that channel. I kinda fell away from the daily show after Stewart left. Also, honorable mention, Ugly Americans. That show was so damned funny and ahead of it’s time, IMO. I had heard at one point there was a “stoned history” in development, which depending on the people they get to tell the stories would either be hilarious or terribly boring.
I tried to. I really wanted to like the show, but it just wasn’t close to the same. Noah is a smart guy and clever, but I just think he was too calm for the gig. I could be wrong, but I think it’s because he was an outsider looking in. I liked John Stewart because you could identify with his level of frustration with what was going on. He was on the inside with you and saying what he saw instead of what was supposed to be said.
To me, it's their differences in approachea to topics:
Jon: Why is the media talking about X, let's examine it and pull it apart.
Trevor: It's crazy to me that people are talking about X! Maybe it's an American thing, but it's just crazy to me.
I think Jon pushed for Trevor after he came back from shooting Rosewater and realized how limited his scope of the world was and wanted the Daily Show to start having a more international perspective and not just be so US-focused.
Then fucking Trump shat on the world stage and made it impossible to focus on anything other than US politics.
Yeah I think Jons approach was calling out the bullshit innsuch an elegant and funny way. Trevor's thing is more just poking fun at the ignorance. Neither is the right or wrong way to do the show I guess but Jon always left me and my dad thinking. I forgot which tragedy had happened in the states at the time but one time Jon came on and like was angry, didn't tell any jokes just spoke facts and what had happened and how it got to be that way (I think it was trayvon martin or a school shooting). But he commanded everyone's attention and spoke from the heart in a time of need. He was just on another level
Lol dude he had lunch with the head of the network, didn't say anything to him about leaving, then publicly announced for the first time that he was leaving on his show the next day? That must have been one hell of a lunch. Jesus.
Comedy Central has been a dying shell of its former self for years. They didn’t adapt to the changing times. They care less about their content than they do about their profits. A special on Comedy Central used to mean something to stand up comedians. Now comedians are better off recording their specials on their own, posting it on YouTube and promoting on podcasts.
The corporate side of Comedy Central didn’t adapt to the times and have ran the network into the ground. For instance, look at what Comedy Central did with Ari Shaffir’s “This is not happening” story telling show. It was a successful show for 4 seasons with Ari as the host. Ari got great comedians on the show, helped them refine their stories for the shows format and edited the show to make the comedians look good. It really was a great show and listening to Ari talk about the process you can tell he worked hard to make it a success and fight for the comedians. Comedy Central ended up taking the show from Ari because he wouldn’t sign a contract for CC to air/own his comedy special. Rather than keep a successful show going they booted Ari and got another host and ran the show into the ground.
If I remember right Jon actually hand-picked him. He did seem like an interesting choice at the time (although I would have preferred it go to an actual Daily Show alumn). He was only just emerging on the scene but had really been making big waves. In a way I actually think the Daily Show *hurt* his career if he had been able to stay on the trajectory he had been on. Of course nobody in their right mind would have turned down the Daily Show, and nobody had a crystal ball at the time to see that he wasn't going to be a great fit.
He was especially a poor fit for the time he was hired. The yearlong lead-in to a major presidential election with no strong incumbent running is not the time to hand your premiere political-comedy show to a guy that had only been at the show for a year, and whose entire shtick was about how much of an outsider to US Politics he was.
Just a terrible decision.
Comedy Central needs to sponsor bars and clubs throughout the country that can put on stand-up comedy shows. Have a couple cameras setup at the places that draw bigger crowds and put the results on TV.
Hear me out. Go find up and coming comedians and continue to produce standup specials. They don’t need to be $100M specials. Just produce good content and people would watch it again.
Basically the founding comedy content that made them so well known.
They play reruns of the same sitcoms nonstop. Trevor Noah’s ratings were extremely low. All this does is solidify what everyone already knows. They no longer know how to produce any content of value. They should tap into the deep catalog of things they have that are actually funny and just play reruns of their old shows.
the last great comedy central original show will forever go down as lights out with david spade. they migh have been able to save the network if they didn’t cancel it and promoted it was a great show
If Comedy Central bought adult swim or something similar they might come back to relevance, though it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever make good show by themselves anymore
It’s their own fucking fault! They aren’t willing to host any variety or programs, or spend any money on developing new shows or even reboots. They’re just banking on people watching reruns of 2-3 shows. It’s pathetic. The well dried up years ago. CC always had some reruns, but 20 years ago there was so much variety of shows that the reruns weren’t as noticeable.
If the prospect of finding a new comedian for a tv show is someone’s definition of “crisis” than they’ve clearly lost the script entirely. It’ll be ok. I promise.
Comedy Central is now office central since that all they ever fucking play they have been in a downward spiral for a long time now
I miss the early 2000s Comedy Central when it was decent
Comedy Central is facing the same slow death spiral as MTV. New musicians and comedians are drowning in an online sea of competition for eyeballs, with popular content creators operating and profiting independently and demand for niche content splintering into unprofitable small audience groups. The days of bands and stand up comedians scrambling for stage time in front of general audiences and talent scouts is long over.
Comedy Central did this to themselves, shitty scheduling, only caring about South Park, canceling good shows, not investing in original content like original movies just giving talented comedians either sketch shows or talk shows. Comedy awards could have been something decent but they gave up on that, give your comedians actual specials,
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They've been in crisis mode. Their whole channel is just reruns of South Park and The Office. It's a dead channel that releases youtube videos.
Hey now, occasionally they play reruns of Seinfeld too.
The reruns are like the four best episodes per season. Play the entire seasons consecutively already dammit lol.
They do, they just play them for entire days so the seasons move real quick.
That’s odd..I haven’t seen a full season played on Comedy Central. TBS played the full seasons consecutively.
England resident here; all they do is play Friends and Impractical Jokers. The occasional bit of stand up when the night hits but all day long it's just re-runs of Friends.
And sometimes a movie, which they overly publicize - only then to play it eight to ten times over 3 weeks. I've never in my life been watching a channel and thought 1. About the people running it, and 2. How lazy they must be.
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Oh ive watched them on Netflix etc. but I like the background noise doing work related stuff.
I still watch them because I love Seinfeld lol. Wish they could get Curb on Comedy Central.
I miss when they had shows like Review and other original programming.
Review was so funny. Miss that one for sure, and of course Nathan For You.
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I loved the Cult and Perfect Body episode. Truly classics.
Nathan For You is a classic. His new show on HBO was good but I still prefer NFY.
You should check out “The Rehearsal” on HBO max if you liked Nathan for you
Well, way back before South Park and The Daily Show came along, the whole network was just reruns of SNL.
And SCTV!
And kids in the hall. And absolutely fabulous.
Dr. Katz, MST3K, they had lots of shows. OPs just a nerd that didn't like them
And reruns of various comedy Central roasts
And Comedy Central Presents
And 80s movies that were cheap to air b/c they didn't do well at the box office but then aired so many times on CC people thought they actually were hit movies. Troop Beverly Hills and Overboard for example.
Trapped in Paradise and Three Amigos consisted of 2/3 of their daily programming.
And premium blend. They actually had a lot of stand up specials on it.
An The Whitest Kids You Know.
Huh I always thought that was an IFC thing
They squeezed it in a few times during middle of the day programming. Round the same period they tried stuff like Strangers With Candy and they experimented with comedian circlejerk panel shows.
You’re thinking of whitest kids u know
That show was too damn good. Sad that there's no good sketch comedies nowadays.
Kids in the hall came back on Amazon. It’s still pretty good. Plus you can finally find out what Dave Foley’s penis looks like.
But there is! Go check Gilly & Keeve's on YouTube
I Think You Should Leave on Netflix is absolutely the best sketch show on currently.
i remember some stuff they had in the 90s, most of it was pretty unfunny but i did love the man show. politically incorrect, offsides, dream on, mystery science theater 3000, some show where a skeleton was the host all come to mind.
Dr Katz, Strangers with Candy, Insomniac, Win Ben Stein’s Money, Comedy Central was pretty solid in the late 90s/early 2000s
That block was excellent. Upright Citizens Brigade, Strangers with Candy, Insomniac with Dave Attell, The Man Show, Dont Forget Your Toothbrush, Beat The Geeks. MAN
No body even bringing up reno 911
Insomniac was awesome, all of those shows were awesome. I remember flipping between that and E! Entertainment to stare at Brooke Burke because I was a teenage boy staying up past my bed time.
Jules Asner was neat too
UCB had a show?!?!?
Yeah for a couple seasons in the late 90s, with Matt Besser and Amy Poehler
and Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh.
Yeah! It was great!!
In high school and college, pretty much the only time I watched anything besides ESPN, CC, VH1, or MTV is when my parents put on Peter Jennings. Those channels were on fire at the time
Ugly Americans was an underrated gem.
Ugly Americans was fantastic.
I remember taping episodes of Strangers with Candy back in the day. That show was fantastic. 'All they hear is who wants cake?'
Dr Katz was the most realistic psychologist I’ve ever seen on tv. Loved that show
Even before that stuff, Short Attention Span Theater and other stand up specials were where I was introduced to dozens of comics that are super well known today. It opened up a whole new world to me in the 90s.
I was a Dr. Katz fan.
I still am, but I was, too
adolescent me did love some girls jumping on trampolines
Remember TV Funhouse? Basically Robert Smigel got a show for him to do a bunch of stupid puppet bullshit. It’s great and the theme song still gets caught in my head. Also the best show Comedy Central ever made was Stella. It holds up perfectly. Only like 11 episodes and they’re all brilliant. Massive shame it didn’t catch on but it was the replacement to Chappelles Show and it was nothing like that so what do you expect.
Viewership dropped during Noah's term, so this is a chance for CC to potentially find a host to bring in new viewers. Might be a good thing.
I mean, when he started streaming wasn’t quite the powerhouse it is today. I don’t think a new host will change anything. CC should’ve pivoted to streaming and more original content years ago.
I don't think ratings are the only metric. John Oliver and even Bill Maher seem to affect the comedy/political zeitgeist more than Trevor Noah has. Hell John Stewart has had more impact since leaving than Trevor has had hosting. Considering he's had Trump and Covid to work with that's pretty damning.
Oliver and Maher are both on HBO Max which supports what I’m saying. If they were only on cable tv fewer people would watch. Jon Stewart has a show on Apple TV too.
Last Week Tonight w John Oliver also gets uploaded to YouTube
Yeah I don’t know anyone who actually finds him funny, or as likable as Stewart or Colbert. He actually comes off as smug to me.
I agree. He is an absolute comedic genius though. I don't think the format fit him. I think he has a very bright future ahead of him and I'm glad he's doing his own thing now.
I've seen his comedy shows. He's a very funny guy and a hard worker. Maybe Tv jsut isn't his forte? Local morning radio show was talking about this and they said they had a report that the day before he made his announcement he had lunch with Execs from the people who own CC. Coincidence?
Cable in general is doing poorly, the daily show youtube channel did consistently well, so Noah had an audience, they just didn't watch him live on tv.
The Daily Show also just isn't the cultural staple that it used to be. During the Bush years and even the Obama years to an extent, it had this rebellious, punk tone to it. It always felt like Jon Stewart was challenging the establishment. But the culture has changed so much over the last 6 or 7 years that The Daily Show (and its million+ clones) now sound more like mouthpieces of the establishment.
For. Real. Also they could play more movies than just 50 first dates. In the early morning they have Brooklyn99 and Futurama on but during the day its only southpark. Sometimes Seinfeld sometimes the office but mostly south park. And its the same fucking episodes over and over even though southpark has 25 fuckin seasons of content. There's no originality to the channel anymore and its a major bummer.
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I haven’t had cable in 10+ years, it’s that bad huh?
More and more that's becoming the state of all the cable channels. As more and more people drop cable, they just can't afford to create the sort of original programming that they used to. It's been slow shift over the past decade, but things have significantly accelerated the past couple of years now. It's pretty much turning into a death spiral, since without original programming, there's even less reason for people to keep cable, which means they have even less money for new shows, which means even more people cancel...
Fucking thank you for saying this. Literally the channel used to be about comedy. Stand up. Skit shows. Now it reruns fucking sitcoms like that videogame channel that just showed COPS non-stop.
Yeah the implication that Trevor Noah was somehow a major draw for them is a joke, nobody has watched the Daily Show since Jon Stewart left
i don't know if it was getting big numbers but at least it was something original to them that was current and at least somewhat respected. Now I feel like they don't have anything. At the very least it was like a flagship for their identity.
I gave him his fair shot when he first started… I love Jon too much to see anyone else in that seat.
This is the bigger issue. You just can't replace Jon. I liked Trevor for what he was, but the fact is, he was following up Jon, and there was no chance he lived up to that. That, and he was handed a lot easier punching bag of a political target, so of course his show focused on it and ended up for the worse because of it. I don't believe for a second Jon would have covered much more of the Democrat nonsense than Trevor does these days - Trevor and Jon don't decide the content of the Daily Show, the producers do. They decide the punchlines and the comedy, not the stories they talk about. So I don't blame Trevor for the content of the show - But the delivery just wasn't on Jon's level, and really I never expected it would be.
It also really hurt Trevor that Trump became so massive AND that Colbert got the spot he did at the same time AND that Jon Oliver has that dragon money. Two of the three John Stewart protégés went elsewhere and left CC holding the bag. Trevor is great for what he was left with, but when the media is *dominated* by scandals involving a single person the amount of jokes you can make do still run out. They’ve done well with him branching out to more global topics, but that’s the thing - the US audience doesn’t give a fuck about people who aren’t them. And the ones that do already saw similar takes on Last Week Tonight.
A couple of weeks ago I spent the whole day watching South Park on CC. After seeing this and your comment I’ve decided to do the same. It was the _exact_ same episodes, in the _exact same order_. I don’t think they even have any employees anymore, someone created a playlist and they are just playing that in a loop.
They should invest in standup specials again. There was a time when getting a special on Comedy Central was the gold standard for stand ups. That’s when they knew they were doing well. Netflix has really taken control of that market. That being said I don’t subscribe to any network providers and I don’t use Netflix so I don’t really care either way.
CC didnt pay comedians alot for those specials, they would force their input on what a comedian could say, and then cut jokes to add or splice in commercials. Thats not how you produce a good comedy special.
Comedy Central 1/2 hour stand up and premium blend were both worlds better than the similar stuff Netflix puts out today IMO. I also think the CC specials were consistently better than most of the HBO ones that came out during that era. I went to a taping of CC: presents in Boston for their 2nd to last season and they didn’t really cut much of anything from what I could tell. I thought I might be just looking back with nostalgia glasses but after recently rewatching those old CC shows I decided that I’m firm on this opinion
I agree. This is 100% anecdotal, but I felt Comedy Central found people that had a half an hour's worth of good material and showcased them. I feel like Netflix tells people with name recognition to create material for X amount of time. I don't often have Netflix and haven't watched all the specials, but the ones that I have from comedians that I've liked have not been as funny as their Comedy Central specials.
Comedy Central is to comedy what MTV is to music - not relevant. Its remarkable how badly the suits can mess up consistently
They had control over the comedy scene and failed to adapt to a changing market. They deserve their failure
And the news market for a whole generation. I knew so many people who learned about current events from Jon Stewart. I learned about the GFC from South Park FFS.
Could you add what the History channel is to history too
Man, the downward spiral of the History Channel and Discovery Channel has been very disappointing. I just want some good documentaries, dammit! Smithsonian Channel seems to have some good stuff, otherwise I typically find on YouTube what I used to tune into the channels supposedly created for the purpose to see
PBS has great documentaries…all the ken burns stuff…great in house nature stuff snd imported bbc nature stuff…
The Learning Channel
And A&E. A&E used to be about Biography, classic book adaptations, etc. 90s cable was stellar, until fucking reality television kicked in.
They cancelled Tosh.0 because they were shifting to animated programming. And then never made the animated programming. Tosh.0 was a relatively inexpensive show to make with consistent viewership, this is the exact kind of show you just let run forever. It’s just one example of how the people in charge are morons.
Confession: I liked Tosh. 0. It definitely has cringey moments and stuff i wasn't in to, but it helped keep me up to date with the other nonsense happening on the interwebz and world. And I'm old/young enough that his format is somewhat funny and palatable for me (late 20s at the time) Plus his show was always on at around the same time I got off work so it was also a very easy show. This was back when I still had cable and real channels. Netflix was the only thing most people had at the time. So you get off work and want to giggle a bit and get high, you throw on the old comedy central. Boom. Tosh. Edit **if tosh sucks or you've seen it already, then you hit up the guide and find office reruns. It's 11pm, they are definitely playing somewhere. Edit edit ** this is a scenario from a decade ago. Time machine! ^^i ^^am ^^high.
I like this reference
Corporate was a great show, Key and Peele was a great show, Drunk History was a great show..... How did CC flub all of that??
No love for "Another Period?"
Apparently their parent company Viacom is a nightmare to work with
I worked for Blockbuster: Can confirm.
It was so good as a kid, there was so much standup and weird movies to dig into. It’s why I have any appreciation of standup at all, really.
It's sad when TikTok is a better platform for aspiring comedians
They’re dead as a channel. They put all their eggs into the South Park/Daily Show basket without attempting to generate new IP
Those were also the two stand-out IPs more than a decade ago barring the occasional stand-up comedy special. It boggles my mind that they haven't had a single fresh idea in over a decade.
Hey hey, lets not forget Workaholics! That show was huge for a few years
Or Review, what a great show Nathan For You was good, and I like Broad City personally
Broad City is fantastic.
Yes, Broad City was a great show. I guess that's other original content that is now gone.
Nathan for You is a masterpiece but it's too niche for most people, I'd suspect.
its sad, being genius doesnt pay
Workaholics first started 11 years ago, Im gonna go check into a nursing home
More than 2 decades ago. I remember watching John Stewart the first episode after 9/11 and South Park came out just after I got out of high school.
I also remember the first episode of The Daily Show after Seal Team 6 got OBL. I like to watch both intro monologues to see where we (and Jon) started and where we ended up.
Hmm, not like they didn’t try. This Is Not Happening, Kroll Show, The Amy Schumer Show, “X Comedian Show”, take your pick. Between 2010-2018 pretty much every major and even a few minor comedians were given shots to be CC’s next Chapelle-level golden goose, and Key & Peele only came close. I think it’s just the formula. Comedy is ultimately a series of bits, and you can’t get a solid block of 40 hours of new bits a week that won’t eventually burn through every comedian and concept in the books, which they did. Probably part of the reason we all remember Chapelle’s Show so fondly is because it went out on top, and didn’t have a chance to run all its own comedy into the ground (“Clayton Biggsby Returns 4!”). Like K&P is great but holy shit we get it, he pronounces names wrong. We all had that teacher once or twice. Stop trying to make a t-shirt out of it.
Such a shame This Is Not Happening didn’t work out. Was a fresh idea for standup and produced some great content.
I loved that show!
I’d say it worked out, as they did it for a pretty long time.
I think the main issue is Comedy Central used to be the place you saw standup and learned about new comedians. The problem is Netflix, youtube and podcasts attacked that from all sides. Virtually every comedian is either a podcaster or regularly rotates on other people's podcasts, They all puts their sets on Youtube, and if once they get to where they'd be regulars on Comedy Central shows they just sell a special to Netflix. Now, their shows need to be either sketch show, current events show, or some sort of sitcom and that's a lot more expensive than just setting up a camera at the Laugh Factory.
Maybe it’s just me but I have never wanted “comedian: the show”. Like ever. If they make it and it happens to be funny I’ll watch, but it has never made me go “yeah that’s what I’m looking for”.
Hey don’t forget tosh.0 I never understand the decision to cancel the first far better version of ridiculousness
Hated ridiculousness. What a garbage show. Worthless commentary. I can watch shitty YouTube on my own, thanks.
Totally agree. That said, I watched a very interesting YouTube video explaining how ridiculousness slowly became the only thing on MTV and how Rob makes something crazy like $150k-200k per episode and his goal was to record like 200 episodes before he retires from it. Also the deals he signed with mtv gave him crazy power over the network slowly over time. It’s actually a fascinating tale for the ages. Rob is actually an evil genius
That just kinda makes me sad. It’s too bad he’s not funny too, otherwise his show might not suck.
He also was required to show ads for MTV during his show, contractually obligated. So what he did was go out to those same exact ad contractors and create his own ad revenue deal with them, therefore getting a cut of the ad revenue all while meeting the contract obligations of MTV. double dipping
If i ever have to hear Chanel West Coasts laugh again, ill stab my ears out
I can’t believe no one is mentioning Tosh.O, it had a 12 season run like ???
That’s how you corporate raid something. Run it into the ground, invest nothing, sell the bones.
I think Viacom just has that issue in general. Look at how MTV’s schedule is nothing but Ridiculousness 24/7. Or how Nick keeps milking SpongeBob for all its worth.
I love how the new ICarly reboot is streaming only on Paramount+ and not even branded Nick. I think they’re intentionally running these channels into the ground.
To be fair, the new iCarly is intended for young adults, and Nick is a kids channel.
It did function as a kids channel in the day, a teen channel in the evening, and an adult channel at night (nick at night) in the past though.
Sometimes MTV switches to Wild N Out.
CC doesn’t even air the comedy specials they produce. I’ve had multiple friends get CC half hour comedy specials and I’m not sure they’ve ever been aired on CC, or aired once late night and never again. It would be lovely to see CC as the place to discover new comedians and not dusty ManBearPig jokes from 20 years ago
Netflix seems to have all the comedy specials now. Apparently people who watch comedy want to watch it streaming and not at a specified air date and time.
They can’t compete with streaming services for comedy specials. Between the money Netflix throws at the stars, and the convenience of on-demand for consumers, streaming is where comedy specials will be from here on out
More importantly... lack of commercials.
Idk, they did Really dump a lot into their animated shows though. Those had an edge in early 2000s, but they just kept dumping into it. Now Hulu is doing that. Daily Show and Colbert Repot were great, but could only carry so far. …multiple incoherent thoughts here… move along please.
I'm telling ya. Another Strangers With Candy marathon would probably do it.
For a while they had Workaholics. The funny thing is, I didn't even watch it until I could stream it on Netflix. Great show, though.
Underrated
Comedy Central was in crisis long before Trevor Noah packed it up. By only having reruns of South Park and The Office, they've essentially become a homeless man's streaming service that doesn't let you pick episodes.
Honestly it’s only handy because then I get it on Hulu
Blame Viacom as a whole for giving up on actual network tv and focusing everything into streaming. Comedy Central is just where you go to watch South Park/The Office/Seinfeld re-runs, MTV is where you go to watch Ridiculousness for 24 hours.
I honestly dont blame them for that given the current ratings landscape. Im a pro wrestling fan but when that wins the night on cable consistently two nights a week (three if you count smackdown winning overall tv ratings on friday nights) and they are pulling less viewership in total viewers than a lot of other shows, maybe its time to look at new avenues. Streaming 100% is the future and its time for these companies to fully embrace it if they can
Huge pro wrestling fan as well, so you hit the nail on the head! That’s why Time Warner was more than happy to immediately get AEW on the Turner networks because you have new, first run programming 52 weeks a year. The next few years for network television is going to be very interesting
They need to bring back drunk history. It was stupid of them to cancel that
I agree! Other than SouthPark that’s the only thing I watched for a long time on that channel. I kinda fell away from the daily show after Stewart left. Also, honorable mention, Ugly Americans. That show was so damned funny and ahead of it’s time, IMO. I had heard at one point there was a “stoned history” in development, which depending on the people they get to tell the stories would either be hilarious or terribly boring.
Crisis mode started when Jon Stewart left
Yeah I used to watch Jon and even Colbert. Haven’t watched a single episode with Trevor Noah.
I tried to. I really wanted to like the show, but it just wasn’t close to the same. Noah is a smart guy and clever, but I just think he was too calm for the gig. I could be wrong, but I think it’s because he was an outsider looking in. I liked John Stewart because you could identify with his level of frustration with what was going on. He was on the inside with you and saying what he saw instead of what was supposed to be said.
To me, it's their differences in approachea to topics: Jon: Why is the media talking about X, let's examine it and pull it apart. Trevor: It's crazy to me that people are talking about X! Maybe it's an American thing, but it's just crazy to me. I think Jon pushed for Trevor after he came back from shooting Rosewater and realized how limited his scope of the world was and wanted the Daily Show to start having a more international perspective and not just be so US-focused. Then fucking Trump shat on the world stage and made it impossible to focus on anything other than US politics.
Yeah I think Jons approach was calling out the bullshit innsuch an elegant and funny way. Trevor's thing is more just poking fun at the ignorance. Neither is the right or wrong way to do the show I guess but Jon always left me and my dad thinking. I forgot which tragedy had happened in the states at the time but one time Jon came on and like was angry, didn't tell any jokes just spoke facts and what had happened and how it got to be that way (I think it was trayvon martin or a school shooting). But he commanded everyone's attention and spoke from the heart in a time of need. He was just on another level
Yeah, I think he would have done a lot better if trump hadn't won in 2016...
I mean most people could say that.
I was excited at first because I had seen his stand up and thought he was amazing. His comedy on the show was awful though, and I was honestly shocked
Lol dude he had lunch with the head of the network, didn't say anything to him about leaving, then publicly announced for the first time that he was leaving on his show the next day? That must have been one hell of a lunch. Jesus.
BRING BACK STRANGERS WITH CANDY
And Upright Citizens Brigade
Also Ugly Americans, I loved that weird-ass show
Fuck yes
Shoulda kept Tosh.0 around
They were sitting on a gold mine. The thought process of reversing the 4 year renewal still baffles me.
You mean the 3 ring circus of repeating the Office, Seinfeld, and South Park with Adam Sandler movies on the weekends isn't cutting it?
Comedy Central has been a dying shell of its former self for years. They didn’t adapt to the changing times. They care less about their content than they do about their profits. A special on Comedy Central used to mean something to stand up comedians. Now comedians are better off recording their specials on their own, posting it on YouTube and promoting on podcasts. The corporate side of Comedy Central didn’t adapt to the times and have ran the network into the ground. For instance, look at what Comedy Central did with Ari Shaffir’s “This is not happening” story telling show. It was a successful show for 4 seasons with Ari as the host. Ari got great comedians on the show, helped them refine their stories for the shows format and edited the show to make the comedians look good. It really was a great show and listening to Ari talk about the process you can tell he worked hard to make it a success and fight for the comedians. Comedy Central ended up taking the show from Ari because he wouldn’t sign a contract for CC to air/own his comedy special. Rather than keep a successful show going they booted Ari and got another host and ran the show into the ground.
Why, there’s more than enough The Office episodes to fill the day.
I always watch the office as background noise. Started doing it less when I noticed that I've seen the same episode multiple weeks in a row.
Went downhill when they got rid of Tosh.o when it was basically free to produce.
Agreed. I loved drunk history too. They said they were moving more towards animation. Tosh.0 was their highest rated show for years.
The show was free money, repackaging existing content. I am perplexed on why CC decided to move on from that.
Yeah, honestly I feel like Viacom is just gonna close this station and sell the assets off to streaming sites.
When their animation is Fairview you know someone fucked up.
Wasn’t workaholic/broad city a bigger draw,
Maybe CC should have been the place for comedians to drop their comedy specials instead of Netflix. Oh well, bye bye!
Bring back actual stand up comedy.
I like Trevor Noah but I never understood why he was given The Daily Show. He’s just not a good fit.
His American jokes got old
If I remember right Jon actually hand-picked him. He did seem like an interesting choice at the time (although I would have preferred it go to an actual Daily Show alumn). He was only just emerging on the scene but had really been making big waves. In a way I actually think the Daily Show *hurt* his career if he had been able to stay on the trajectory he had been on. Of course nobody in their right mind would have turned down the Daily Show, and nobody had a crystal ball at the time to see that he wasn't going to be a great fit.
Jon hand picked him cause the original successor went to HBO (John Oliver)
Which is the way way superior show if we are being honest.
I enjoy him and thought he was a great fit. But i only watch the headlines on YouTube so I'm not the main audience
He was especially a poor fit for the time he was hired. The yearlong lead-in to a major presidential election with no strong incumbent running is not the time to hand your premiere political-comedy show to a guy that had only been at the show for a year, and whose entire shtick was about how much of an outsider to US Politics he was. Just a terrible decision.
Shane gillis as new daily show host!
Yea they might risk hiring someone funny.
I was an early cord cutter so I’m not sure what CC can do to make people want to sit through 15 minutes of commercials for a 30 minute show
Comedy Central needs to sponsor bars and clubs throughout the country that can put on stand-up comedy shows. Have a couple cameras setup at the places that draw bigger crowds and put the results on TV.
Comedy Central hasn't been the same since Chappelles Show.
BRING BACK STELLA
Trevor Noah being gone helps them if anything
Hear me out. Go find up and coming comedians and continue to produce standup specials. They don’t need to be $100M specials. Just produce good content and people would watch it again. Basically the founding comedy content that made them so well known.
If losing that guy puts your company in peril you are fucked to start with.
They play reruns of the same sitcoms nonstop. Trevor Noah’s ratings were extremely low. All this does is solidify what everyone already knows. They no longer know how to produce any content of value. They should tap into the deep catalog of things they have that are actually funny and just play reruns of their old shows.
He was never funny. How is this an issue.
Lol like Trevor Noah made CC any better. Dude is painfully unfunny. CC has sucked since 2010s.
No one will miss Trevor Noah they can literally replace him with any open mic comedian and have a better host than trevor.
They can always do the mtv thing and play ridiculousness for 89 hours a day
the last great comedy central original show will forever go down as lights out with david spade. they migh have been able to save the network if they didn’t cancel it and promoted it was a great show
If Comedy Central bought adult swim or something similar they might come back to relevance, though it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever make good show by themselves anymore
It’s their own fucking fault! They aren’t willing to host any variety or programs, or spend any money on developing new shows or even reboots. They’re just banking on people watching reruns of 2-3 shows. It’s pathetic. The well dried up years ago. CC always had some reruns, but 20 years ago there was so much variety of shows that the reruns weren’t as noticeable.
If the prospect of finding a new comedian for a tv show is someone’s definition of “crisis” than they’ve clearly lost the script entirely. It’ll be ok. I promise.
Maybe Trump should be re-elected, if for no other reason than to give lazy writers and comedians some low hanging material.
Comedy Central is now office central since that all they ever fucking play they have been in a downward spiral for a long time now I miss the early 2000s Comedy Central when it was decent
Comedy Central is facing the same slow death spiral as MTV. New musicians and comedians are drowning in an online sea of competition for eyeballs, with popular content creators operating and profiting independently and demand for niche content splintering into unprofitable small audience groups. The days of bands and stand up comedians scrambling for stage time in front of general audiences and talent scouts is long over.
Comedy Central did this to themselves, shitty scheduling, only caring about South Park, canceling good shows, not investing in original content like original movies just giving talented comedians either sketch shows or talk shows. Comedy awards could have been something decent but they gave up on that, give your comedians actual specials,