“Jeff Dunham” show makes recording-breaking Comedy Central premiere
Despite hefty competition, the series premiere of “The Jeff Dunham Show” Thursday night on Comedy Central broke the network’s all-time records for a series premiere among total viewers (5.3 million), Adults 18-49 rating (2.6) and Adult 18-49 viewers (3 million), according to a news release.
The series premiered at 8 p.m. Oklahoma time Thursday against Game 5 of the American League Championship Series and original episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “CSI” and “The Office.”
The premiere was the most-watched show in cable for Thursday primetime among total viewers, as well as the highest-rated and most-watched show in cable for Thursday primetime among Adults 18-49, Men 18-34 and Men 18-24.
The stellar performance of the premiere, which was seen by an aggregate of nearly 8 million total viewers on Thursday night, including replays, led Comedy Central to its highest-rated and most-watched night of the year, according to the release.
Encore presentations of “The Jeff Dunham Show” will air at 1 p.m. today, 9:30 p.m. Sunday, 6 p.m. Monday, 11 p.m. Tuesday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“The Jeff Dunham Show” is a new half-hour comedy-reality show from Levity Entertainment starring ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham. The series features Dunham and his hilarious cast of characters: Walter, the cranky curmudgeon; Achmed the Dead Terrorist, a skeleton with serious anger issues; “Boobs and Beer” Bubba J; José Jalapeño on a Stick, the talking pepper; fame-hungry purple Peanut; and Melvin, a superhero with no powers. Dunham and his pals perform in front of a live studio audience as well as interact on location with real people.
The series is the first part of a wide-ranging, fully-integrated, multi-platform initiative that Comedy Central signed earlier this year with Dunham; the deal 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 more than 60 performances.
The tour kicks off September 2010 and a major consumer products partnership in conjunction with the series and the tour will also 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.
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, serves as supervising producer.
“The Jeff Dunham Show” series is being sponsored by Subway, and the debut episode was sponsored by Geico.
-BAM
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