Comedy Central (British TV channel)

The channel was launched as The Paramount Channel on 1 November 1995. The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, including such eclectic offerings as Beauty and the Beast, several Japanese anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming such as The Magician, as well as Nickelodeon's Ren & Stimpy, which was shown on Paramount rather than Nickelodeon due to its rather adult nature at times. It originally aired every evening after Nickelodeon's closing at 7:00pm until around 4:00am, with a testcard featuring a chicken crossing the road and holding up traffic airing during downtime (a segment deemed as "Chicken Tonite") until Nickelodeon started up at 6:00am.

Logo used from September 2005 until 6 April 2009.

In February 1997, the Paramount Channel became the Paramount Comedy Channel, a channel dedicated solely to comedy.[1]

With expansion of Sky Digital on 4 February 2001, the channel no longer shared air time with Nickelodeon and started broadcasting with a daytime schedule beginning broadcasts at 9:00am.[2] On 1 July 2002, the channel renamed itself Paramount Comedy. By 2005, with the timeshift channel Paramount Comedy 2 having gone on the air in 2003, the primary channel was renamed as Paramount Comedy 1.

Logo used from 6 April 2009 until 31 July 2012; the channel adopted the same on-screen identity as its American counterpart the next day on 1 August.

On 17 February 2009, it was confirmed that Paramount Comedy 1 would become Comedy Central from 6 April 2009 in the UK and Ireland.[3] Since season 13, Comedy Central has aired new episodes of South Park two days after they aired in the US (i.e., the episodes air on Comedy Central US on Wednesdays, and air on the UK counterpart on Fridays.) At 9:00pm on 6 April, Paramount Comedy 1 was finally relaunched as Comedy Central, with the last programme on PC1 being an episode of Scrubs and the first programme on Comedy Central being a new episode of Two and a Half Men. Comedy Central idents from this era were filmed in locations such as The Gherkin, Forth Bridge and Nelson's Column.

Logo used from 1 August 2012 until 9 January 2019.

In October 2011, Threesome, a narrative comedy series and Comedy Central's first original scripted comedy began. The series starred Emun Elliott, Irish actor Amy Huberman and Stephen Wight, was written by Tom MacRae, and produced by Big Talk Productions.[16]

In May 2012, it was announced that Comedy Central was to make a major push into original comedy content, with more than 20 new projects at various stages of development, and 10 scripts already ordered. Programming executive Sarah Farrell told trade magazine Broadcast, "This time next year, we will be doing as many of those projects as we possibly can. We are looking for things that are big, broad and accessible, with the laugh-out-loud factor that comes from big jokes and set pieces." She also noted that they are now "fully committed to the plans."[17]

The process was being micro-managed by Paramount bosses in New York, but with the announcement of such projects and Threesome's success, UK executives have been given greater control. Farrell also indicated that if the already commissioned second series of Threesome is popular, then "a third run could be up to 22 episodes in length."[17]

As of May 2012, details about most of the new projects are not publicly available, though the magazine Broadcast reported minor details of a proposed single-camera sitcom about a graduate who moves back in with his parents. A pilot episode of Big Bad World, which is written by Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf is reportedly being produced by Objective Productions and by the team behind Peep Show. Tristram Shapeero, who had been working in the US and whose credits include Happy Endings, Green Wing, Community, and I'm Alan Partridge, will direct, with Andrew Newman and Ben Farrell executive producing. Five further scripts are already complete, should the pilot be seen in a positive light by Comedy Central bosses.[17]

Comedy Central's move into original productions did not come without problems, as it was announced in April 2012 that Pete Thornton, the channel's comedy commissioner, had resigned to return to the BBC comedy department as its Creative Head of Comedy, and would oversee Comic Relief 2013. Comedy Central is one of several UK digital channels to work on increasing their original comedy output, with BSkyB investing in new British comedy programmes, and UKTV channels Dave and Gold also producing more of their own content.[17]

Alongside the other VIMN (Viacom International Media Networks) networks in the UK, Comedy Central, fuelled by the purchase of Channel 5, there has been an announcement to open a production studio [18] to make programming for Comedy Central and other channels.

It was announced in 2016 that Comedy Central and Channel X had greenlit a new prank comedy reality show presented and starting YouTuber Ben Phillips and his friends. The new series, titled Ben Phillips Blows Up, the channel announced there would be a 22-minute pilot episode due to be released in 2017 on Comedy Central. A full series would happen if the show is well received.[19]

In 2021, Comedy Central UK ordered three new shows for the network including quiz show Fact Off and panel show The Complaints Department.[20][21][22][23][24][25] The third new show was an all female comedy panel/satire show called Yesterday, Today and The Day Before[26] which was due to be hosted each week by comedians Suzi Ruffell, Maisie Adam and Sophie Duker, until Duker quit after the first episode in protest over cuts to her monologue about conflict between Israel and Palestine.[27][28][29] These shows join other unscripted/panel show formats on the network[11] including Rhod Gilbert's Growing Pains,[30] Comedy Game Night (previously shown on Channel 5)[31][32][33] and Guessable?, hosted by Sara Pascoe.[34]

On 29 September 2021, Fact Off debuted on the channel at 9pm, under the new name of Rob Beckett's Undeniable,[35][36][37] with Joe Swash, Kae Kurd, Angela Barnes and Ivo Graham, the first guests of the new series.[38]