Jeff Dunham Brings Walter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Jose Jalapeno on a Stick and His Whole Eclectic Cast of Characters to COMEDY CENTRAL(R) With the New Series 'The Jeff Dunham Show' Premiering October 22 at 9:00 p.m.

Jeff Dunham Brings Walter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Jose Jalapeno on a Stick and His Whole Eclectic Cast of Characters to COMEDY CENTRAL(R) With the New Series 'The Jeff Dunham Show' Premiering October 22 at 9:00 p.m.

Dunham's Most Recent Stand-Up Special Was COMEDY CENTRAL's Most-Watched Telecast Of All Time With 6.6 Million Viewers

NEW YORK, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Jeff Dunham is no dummy! He and his infamous characters, Walter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Peanut, Melvin, Bubba J and Jose Jalapeno on a Stick have found a home at COMEDY CENTRAL with the new series "The Jeff Dunham Show" debuting on Thursday, October 22 at 9:00 p.m.

Encore presentations of "The Jeff Dunham Show" air Thursdays at 10:30 p.m.

"The Jeff Dunham Show" is a new half-hour comedy-reality show from Levity Entertainment starring ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham. The series features Dunham and his hilarious cast of characters: Walter, the cranky curmudgeon; Achmed the Dead Terrorist, a skeleton with serious anger issues; "Boobs and Beer" Bubba J; Jose Jalapeno on a Stick, the talking pepper; fame-hungry purple Peanut and Melvin, a superhero with no powers. Dunham and his pals perform in front of a live studio audience as well as interact on location with real people.

"The Jeff Dunham Show" builds upon the breakout success of Dunham's COMEDY CENTRAL stand-up specials, the most recent of which, "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special," was the most-watched telecast in COMEDY CENTRAL history with 6.6 million viewers. The debut episode features Walter and Dunham visiting a licensed psychologist to save their relationship only to learn that he specializes in gay couples, Bubba J drinking beer and shooting guns at a real rifle range and Achmed the Dead Terrorist promoting his own comedy DVD, "I Kill You I Kill Me." Also in the debut episode, Peanut wants a "hot friggin' famous" Hollywood girlfriend and asks Jeff's publicist to fix him up with guest star Brooke Hogan. However, their date goes awry when Peanut gets all choked up over some guacamole and chips. Future episodes include Achmed attempting to become a US citizen by joining the Marines (but cannot do a push-up to save his life), Peanut developing a new energy drink and Walter visiting a local tech shop to learn about the latest technology - only to end up insulting the entire staff.

Launching in early October, "The Jeff Dunham Show" Web site will feature deleted and extended scenes from the show, an exclusive webisode series previewing sketches from the show and special downloadable cut-out masks of four of Dunham's characters. Additionally, fans of the series can play "The Jeff Dunham Show: The Game," allowing them to set off with his wild cast of characters on an adventure to rebuild each other and make it to the show on time. There will also be a Facebook Personality Quiz, "Which Jeff Dunham Character are You?," where fans can find out if they're more of a Peanut or if they're channeling their inner Walter, and then share the results with their friends.

"The Jeff Dunham Show" is the first part of a wide-ranging, fully-integrated, multi-platform initiative that COMEDY CENTRAL signed earlier this year with Dunham that also includes a stand-up special, major-market stand-up tour, DVDs and a consumer products partnership. His one-hour COMEDY CENTRAL Original Stand-Up Special will air in early fall 2010, with COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment and Levity producing and distributing DVDs of both the series and stand-up special, as well as a colossal, nationwide COMEDY CENTRAL Live stand-up concert tour with over 60 performances. The tour kicks off September 2010 and a major consumer products partnership in conjunction with the series and tour will hit the marketplace in 2010. Each of the deal's elements will feature unique components for reaching the COMEDY CENTRAL audience wherever it lives. This deal also opens the door to future digital projects with Dunham and comedycentral.com.

According to the concert industry publication, Pollstar, Dunham is the top-grossing stand-up act in North America and he and his cast of characters have amassed legions of loyal fans all over the world. In the spring of 2009, Dunham completed his first European tour, selling out venues from London to Helsinki. A pop culture phenomenon, Dunham has sold over four million DVDs and has received more than 350 million views on YouTube, making him one of the most-viewed entertainers of all time. As well as having the most-watched telecast in COMEDY CENTRAL's history, the DVD of Jeff Dunham's "A Very Special Christmas Special" hit quadruple platinum (sales of over 400,000) in its first two weeks. His previous DVD, "Spark of Insanity," received the best reviews of any DVD on Amazon.com in 2008. His CD album, "Don't Come Home for Christmas," went to #1 on the iTunes CD sales chart as well as Top 10 on Billboard's independent chart.

Credits for The "Jeff Dunham Show" include Jeff Dunham, Ross McCall, Aaron Peters, Judi Brown-Marmel, Robert Hartmann and Stu Schreiberg as executive producers and Gary Mann and Monika Zielinska as executives in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL. Long-time writing collaborator, Jeff Rothpan, will serve as supervising producer.

The debut episode of "The Jeff Dunham Show" is being sponsored by Subway.

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 95 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) (NYSE:and) (NYSE: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) (NYSE: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.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: COMEDY CENTRAL Corporate Communications

CONTACT: Marie Raubicheck, +1-212-767-8561,
marie.raubicheck@comedycentral.com

Web Site: http://www.comedycentral.com/

---

Profile: International Entertainment