Comedy Central to Launch New Arabic Comedy on Digital Platforms

posted on: Apr 21, 2019

SOURCE: THE NATIONAL

BY: CHRIS NEWBOULD

Comedy Central’s locally produced digital content is expanding with the roll-out of MENA episodes of Comedians Solve World Problems on parent company Viacom and Comedy Central’s digital platforms. The internationally originated short-form series will also have localised versions in the US, Asia, Italy, France, Spain, Benelux, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.

These global green-lights follow the success of the series’ first season, which was produced by Comedy Central International for the UK. The fresh, new local episodes are in Arabic, and feature the comics coming up with funny solutions to some of the world and region’s trending social problems.

The show will run on the Comedy Central Arabia website and social platforms including Facebook and Instagram, with the first episode to premiere on April 24.

The first episode of the new series will feature comedians Ahmed Essam and Ahmed El-Hareedy finding ways to tackle one of the world’s biggest issues, mental health. A new show will air each week, with topics ranging from boycotting supermarkets and restaurants, social media addiction, interracial marriage and money.

The debut UK series of Comedians Solve World Problems has generated over 5 million total views to date. Each episode ran between 1 to 3 minutes and was available across territories in Southern & Western Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Central & East Europe.

Viacom has recently opened production hubs in Buenos Aires, New York and London to increase the international output of its short-form digital content. Comedy Central has previously created several short-form shows, including the MENA adaptation of the UK’s Bad Snappers, hosted by Rima Iskandarani and Frial Abdelrazek, in 150 territories on owned and operated social platforms. Comedy Central plans to produce 20 additional short-forms through 2019.