Press Release

Important News: COMEDY CENTRAL's(R) 'Important Things with Demetri Martin' Premieres Wednesday, February 11 at 10:30 p.m.

January 27, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
Important News: COMEDY CENTRAL's(R) 'Important Things with Demetri Martin' Premieres Wednesday, February 11 at 10:30 p.m.

NEW YORK, Jan 27, 2009 -- New Sketch And Variety Series From "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" Contributor

"Important Things" Is Second Series Pick-Up Under COMEDY CENTRAL's First-Look Agreement With Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, Inc.

Demetri Martin launches potentially the most important TV show of all time ever, "Important Things with Demetri Martin," a sketch comedy series premiering on Wednesday, February 11 at 10:30 p.m.

Stand-up comedian, Emmy®-losing writer and all-around person, Demetri Martin is the creator, executive producer and star of "Important Things with Demetri Martin." In this sketch comedy series, Martin mixes stand-up comedy, sketches, animation, studio bits and music to explore one "important thing" per episode -- like Power, Safety or Chairs. Martin's jokes, drawings and hair will play major roles in the series. There are also some celebrity cameos by David Cross, Amanda Peet and Martin's "Daily Show" colleague John Oliver.

In the premiere episode, Martin will explore the subject of "Timing." The episode includes a sketch about a man who uses time travel to meet women, a sketch about an actor with terrible timing, plus cartoons, jokes and a performance piece that all relate to "Timing."

"Important Things with Demetri Martin" is the second series pick-up under COMEDY CENTRAL's first-look agreement with Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, Inc. The show is produced by Busboy in association with One Verse, Inc. and is executive produced by Stewart and Martin. Rich Korson and Chris McShane are the executives in charge of production for Busboy. Dan Powell is the executive in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL.

For the premiere season of "Important Things with Demetri Martin," comedycentral.com will feature weekly exclusive video content to give fans a look into some of the "Important Things" Martin has chosen to explore. The site will be an extension of the show experience and will feature show preview and highlight clips, a blog, behind-the-scenes originals, an original word game and a widget. Fans will have the chance to show their interpretation of each week's "Important Thing" with a fan "'Important Things" Picture Contest." And finally, get Martin on-the-go, with preview and highlight clips on the WAP site, straight out to fans' mobile phones.

Demetri Martin (www.demetrimartin.com) dropped out of NYU School of Law to pursue comedy. Since then, he has performed in most of the English-speaking countries in the world (not in South Africa or New Zealand, though) and won trophies for comedy in America, Scotland and Australia. Martin was a staff writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and has appeared on a lot of late-night television shows, both onstage and in the audience. He made a stand-up CD/DVD, "These Are Jokes," which was released via COMEDY CENTRAL Records® in 2006 and his "Trendspotting with Demetri Martin" has been a featured segment on the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" since December 2005. Martin was featured in his own one-hour stand-up special for COMEDY CENTRAL, "Demetri Martin. Person." (which was also released on DVD by COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment® and Paramount Home Entertainment).

Future projects for Martin include the lead role in the upcoming Ang Lee film, "Taking Woodstock," for Focus Features (slated for release this summer). He is writing the feature script, "Will," for Paramount Pictures. He is also co-writing, with James Bobin, the feature script, "The Moon People," for Sony Pictures with Mosaic Media Producing. Martin is also planning to clean up his apartment some time in 2009.

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 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.

SOURCE COMEDY CENTRAL Corporate Communications

http://www.comedycentral.com