Sky Comedy to launch on 27th January
David Farnor | On 22, Jan 2020
Sky Comedy will launch this January, bringing a new focused home for comedy TV for Sky customers.
The channel will be the new home of the very best of US comedy from HBO, NBC and Showtime. Boasting a host of new and acclaimed series, it aims to be a one-stop shop for all the top comedy from the other side of the Atlantic.
New series include Mrs. Fletcher starring Kathryn Hahn, The Righteous Gemstones, created by and starring Danny McBride with John Goodman, Adam DeVine and Edi Patterson, plus Run written by Vicky Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Sky Comedy will also air new seasons of returning shows such as Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ballers starring Dwayne Johnson and Insecure created by and starring Issa Rae.
Sky Comedy will also have hundreds of hours of classic US comedy box sets on-demand, including Girls, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Veep, Entourage, The Mindy Project and Sex and The City.
One of its flagship titles will be comedy titan Saturday Night Live, returning to UK television for the first time in over a decade.
Talk shows direct from the US will include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Real Time with Bill Maher and The Late Late Show.
Here’s a breakdown of how they will air in the UK:
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is an institution of US TV comedy, featuring sketches and satire performed live from New York City. It will air weekly on Sunday nights in the UK at 9pm, with the episode also available on-demand following its broadcast. At launch, you’ll be able to watch Episode 12 (Saturday 25th January in the US), which sees Adam Driver return to host, joined by special musical guest Halsey. Episode 13 (airing 1st February in the US) will arrive on Sunday 2nd February, with further episodes debuting weekly.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
From the heart of New York City, Jimmy Fallon welcomes famous faces on to his couch for a chat, along with his trademark blend of fun games, features and music. The late-night talk show from Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center, New York – including sidekick and announcer Steve Higgins and house band the Roots – airs nightly for five days in a row, before taking a break over the weekend. In the UK, it will arrive on Sky Comedy within 24 hours of its US debut, airing at 10.50pm on Sky Comedy. That means you get a new episode on Tuesday 28th January, Wednesday 29th January, Thursday 30th January, Friday 31st January and Saturday 1st January, before a two-day break until Tuesday. That cycle will repeat weekly for the rest of the season.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
British comedian, actor and writer John Oliver delivers breaking news on a weekly basis in this tongue-in-cheek current affairs series filmed in New York. Season 7 premieres in the USA on Sunday 16th February, which means you can expect weekly episodes to drop on Sky Comedy on Mondays, starting 17th February.
Don’t have Sky? Streaming service NOW gives you access to Sky Comedy, Sky Atlantic, Sky One, Sky Crime, Sky Witness, FOX UK, SyFy UK and more, all for £8.99 a month, with no contract.
Sky launches Sky Comedy and Sky Crime channels featuring Saturday Night Live and more
24th August 2019
Sky has has announced two new channels on the way to its entertainment portfolio. Sky Crime will launch in October 2019 and Sky Comedy in February 2020, each one providing a clearer destination for Sky’s true crime and comedic output – and, more specifically, imports from the US.
Sky Crime will be the home of premium US true crime from Oxygen and HBO and the dedicated home of quality first run content from Jupiter and Woodcut. Key programming will include addictive, emotionally charged accounts of true crimes, many of which remain unsolved, such as I Love You, Now Die and The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell. Additionally, famous headline cases from the US and UK six as Kemper on Kemper and Britain’s Most Evil Killers and the In Defense Of series will bring new insight into some of the most notorious killers of modern times.
Sky Comedy, launching in February 2020, will be the home of premium scripted US comedy from HBO, NBC and Showtime, including brand new comedies such as Mrs Fletcher, starring Kathryn Hahn, The Righteous Gemstones, starring John Goodman, Adam DeVine and Danny McBride, A.P. Bio and Sunnyside.
Perhaps most exciting of all, though, is Sky Comedy will also feature top rated US talk shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which will air for the first time in the UK alongside Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will also be featured. More notably, comedy titan Saturday Night Live will also air on Sky Comedy, the first time the iconic show has aired properly on UK TV since 2006. Whether it will be the full-length episodes or a 60-minute version cut down for syndication is not yet known, although both are a step up from fans streaming clips on YouTube.
The channel will also broadcast a library of favourites such as Will & Grace and Parks and Recreation, and all new series of returning hit US shows such as Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ballers starring Dwayne Johnson.
Both channels will be available to all Sky customers at no extra charge, through linear and on-demand. The channels will also be available on NOW, as part of the NOW Entertainment pass.
Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content at Sky, says: “Sky Crime and Sky Comedy are fantastic additions to our entertainment portfolio, providing our customers with two new destinations for their favourite shows. Sky Crime, the home of premium true crime, will complement Sky Witness perfectly, while Sky Comedy is an exciting new proposition for Sky customers, offering them a daily dose of the best US comedy which will sit alongside our expanding slate of Sky Original comedy on Sky One. By investing in the best of the US as well as doubling our investment in original drama and comedy, we are making Sky an unbeatable destination for the best range of premium TV.”
The entertainment portfolio on Sky in the UK and Ireland will therefore soon include six core Sky channel brands: Sky One, Sky Atlantic, Sky Witness, Sky Arts, Sky Crime and Sky Comedy, alongside the Sky Cinema and Sky Kids services. Sky’s other channel brands include E!, SYFY, Pick and Challenge.