EXCLUSIVE: Drunk History is emerging from a long, inebriated slumber: Comedy Central has announced that its Emmy-winning educational comedy series from Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner is set to return this fall with three brand-new short-form episodes, marking the series’ first original installments in years.
New episodes are set to roll out on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel beginning Tuesday, Sept. 15. The first of them chronicles Madonna’s legendary performance of “Like a Virgin” at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, with Meghan Trainor portraying the “Queen of Pop.” The others take on Frances Perkins, the unsung architect of FDR’s New Deal, and two men’s lifelong battle to make the world’s largest ball of twine.
Lisa Gilroy, Patton Oswalt and Marisha Ray narrate the episodes. Other featured performers include Steve Agee, Tim Baltz, Seth Green, Colin Hanks, Jack McBrayer, Chris Parnell, Johnny Pemberton, Daryl Sabara, Mae Whitman, “Weird Al” Yankovic and more.
One of Comedy Central’s most iconic series, Drunk History revolves around inebriated storytellers’ recollections of unforgettable moments from history and pop culture — and lip-synced reenactments of these events by all-star casts of comedians.
The series originated from a 2007 conversation, in which an inebriated Jake Johnson told Waters about R&B singer Otis Redding’s 1967 death in a plane crash. Sensing a comedic format here, Waters partnered with Konner to film a five-minute short about the fatal 1804 pistol duel between U.S. political rivals Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, with Johnson and Michael Cera playing the lead roles. The video went viral, and the rest, as they say, is history: With this proof of concept in hand, Drunk History expanded as a web series for Funny or Die before making its way to Comedy Central, where it ran for 70 episodes from 2013-2019.
Over the course of its six seasons, Drunk History broke out as a cultural phenomenon, averaging more than 1M viewers per episode in Live+7 viewing, The show scored 17 Emmy nominations in total, with a win for its costumes in 2015, and spawned international versions in the likes of Australia, Mexico and the UK. Like Broad City and Workaholics, two of Comedy Central’s other defining 2010s hits, Drunk History demonstrated the network’s savvy in taking internet-born, creator-driven comedy and building it into a broader television franchise.
Ari Pearce, EVP, Head of Comedy Central Original Content, told Deadline: “We are thrilled that Drunk History is back. These new episodes reflect our heritage as both the home of iconic comedy franchises and a premier launchpad for comedic talent. As we continue to expand our reach across platforms, Drunk History is a great example of how we’re delivering Comedy Central to fans in new ways.”
Reached for comment by Deadline, Waters explained that he’d been speaking with Pearce “for a while” about revisiting Drunk History in some form and “couldn’t be more excited” to do so.
“Drunk History has and will always be about informing the audience of History we may not have heard of but should have,” Waters said. “History used to be a thing of our past but it’s slowly becoming our future. We need to learn from our history but we also need to be laughing right now. We hope these new stories do both for our long awaited audience.”
Whether Drunk History will return for more than a handful of episodes remains unclear. But the announcement represents another sign of life for Comedy Central, which has produced few new original series and wielded less influence in comedy in recent years, notwithstanding enduring pillars like The Daily Show and South Park.
The news of Drunk History‘s return follows their recent announcement of Comedy Central Stand-Up Selects, a new digital series featuring short sets from 14 comics that launches this fall.
There’s been curiosity in town as to what is afoot at Comedy Central — whether we might see a revitalization of the valued comedy brand, post-Paramount-Skydance merger. And it does now seem like that will be the case. Beyond Stand-Up Selects and Drunk History, they confirm that they’re now looking to build out a refreshed slate of multi-platform originals to include original podcasts, one-hour specials, and more.
The intention, they’ve indicated, is to reassert Comedy Central’s legacy as a champion to new comedic voices while ushering in a new generation of comedy hits.
This story originated as part of Deadline’s Comedy Means Business newsletter, tracking the business of comedy from all angles. Sign up here.
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