COMEDY CENTRAL(R) Announces Contract Extensions With Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- COMEDY CENTRAL has reached individual agreements with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to extend the contracts of the hosts of the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning series "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," it was announced today by Michele Ganeless, president, COMEDY CENTRAL.

Stewart's contract extension with COMEDY CENTRAL will keep him at the helm of "The Daily Show" through June 2013.  He will continue to serve as executive producer, writer and host.  Colbert's extension will keep him and "The Colbert Report" at the all-comedy channel through the end of 2012.  Colbert serves as executive producer, writer and host for "The Report."

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," a nightly news parody launched in the summer of 1996, takes a reality-based look at news, pop culture, politics and the media.  In each show, Stewart and a team of correspondents, featuring Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac, Jason Jones, Aasif Mandvi and John Oliver comment on the day's stories employing actual news footage, taped field pieces, in-studio guests and on-the-spot coverage of important news events.

Among the show's many plaudits since Stewart took over on January 11, 1999 are a grand total of 32 Primetime Emmy® nominations for "The Daily Show."  It has received a record seven consecutive Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series; six Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program; and Stewart has been nominated for five Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.  The series is also a two-time winner of the prestigious Peabody® Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

Stewart, Rory Albanese and Josh Lieb are the executive producers of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" with Kahane Corn serving as co-executive producer. Supervising producers are Steve Bodow, Jennifer Flanz, Hillary Kun, Adam Lowitt and Jim Margolis. The series' head writer is Steve Bodow and it is directed by Chuck O'Neil.

Hosted by Stephen Colbert, "The Colbert Report" features no-holds-barred discussions in which the important topics of our time and the daily news are treated with absolutely no seriousness whatsoever.  Colbert preaches truthiness – his version of the truth and the only version that matters.  Since the series' launch on October 17, 2005, "The Colbert Report" has received a total of 15 Primetime Emmy® Award nominations, including four consecutive nominations for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series.  The series broke through with its first Emmy® win in 2008 when it received the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.  Colbert has been nominated three times for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.  The series was also honored with a prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in the 67th Annual Peabody Awards competition (2008).

"The Colbert Report" is produced by Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, Inc. in association with Colbert's Spartina Productions, Inc.  Stewart, Colbert and Tom Purcell are the executive producers with Meredith Bennett and Richard Dahm as co-executive producers. Jim Hoskinson is the director.

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 98 million homes nationwide.  COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks.  COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is www.comedycentral.com.  For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Press Central, COMEDY CENTRAL's press Web site, at www.comedycentral.com/press.

MTV Networks, a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products.  The company's portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 400 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, SPIKE, TV Land, Atom, GameTrailers and Xfire.  

SOURCE COMEDY CENTRAL Corporate Communications