Comedy Central Picks Up ‘Drunk History’ To Series, Renews ‘Workaholics’ For 2 Seasons
Viral hit Drunk History is becoming a TV series. Comedy Central has given an eight-episode series pickup to the project after originally ordering a pilot presentation in the spring. The announcement was made at TCA where the network also said it has ordered Seasons 4 and 5 of Workaholics for a total of 26 episodes.
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Drunk History, produced by by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy’s Gary Sanchez Prods. The trio will executive produce with Derek Waters, creator of the Drunk History series of shorts, Jeremy Konner, who directed them, and Owen Burke. Like the Web series, Drunk History, which will premiere in the summer, will feature historical reenactments by A-list talent serving as inebriated storytellers. “Will and I have always believed booze brings out truth,” McKay said. “Sometimes that truth involves hitting on airport bar janitors or eating cheese fries at 4 a.m. But in this case, we hope that truth will shine on our nation’s history.”
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Among those who have done re-enactments in the original Web series are Ferrell, Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Jack Black, Don Cheadle, Michael Cera, Zooey Deschanel, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Jason Ritter and Danny McBride. In addition to garnering millions of hits on YouTube and Funny or Die, a Drunk History short produced for Gary Sanchez’s HBO series Funny or Die Presents won The Jury Prize for Best American Short Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It starred Ferrell and Cheadle as Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass, respectively.
Workaholics, from Internet sketch group Mail Order Comedy’s Blake Anderson, Adam Devine, Anders Holm and Kyle Newacheck, will begin airing new episodes on January 16. Over its third season summer run, Workaholics averaged 2 million total viewers airing behind Tosh.0 and was the highest rated series in its timeslot across all of television among Men 18-34 and Men 18-24. It is a single-camera comedy featuring three friends who work together from 9 to 5, live together from 5 to 9 and party together 24/7.
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