Comedy Central looking for Geordie Shore-style comedies
Comedy Central has made known that it is looking for unscripted comedy formats.
Speaking today at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Lourdes Diaz, the network's vice president of development and production in the UK, said "We want to find our own version of Geordie Shore that puts comedy first."
Broadcast magazine reports that she explained finding such formats is harder than discovering new traditional, scripted comedies.
MTV reality series Geordie Shore first began in 2008 and is currently broadcasting its eighth series. It follows the outrageous and often depraved lives of a group of twenty-somethings from North East England.
Ostensibly a reality series, the programme contains elements and situations purposely created and manipulated by producers for entertainment purposes.
Comedy Central is well-known for its roster of comedies bought from the US, and has in recent years made a foray into original British programming with the likes of Big Bad World and Threesome.
In an effort to develop long-running, broad, US-style comedies that would be easily repeatable both in Britain and overseas - along the lines of The Big Bang Theory and Friends - Comedy Central is now developing new sitcoms.
Mummy's Boys has already been ordered for a full series, whilst the sitcoms Medics and I Live With Models have recently been piloted. It is these such comedies that Comedy Central is looking for comic reality shows to complement.
The channel also recently announced a major deal with Russell Howard to produce a number of new series and repeat BBC Three hit Russell Howard's Good News.