Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original and syndicated. Since late 2006, local versions of Comedy Central have launched in the European market including in Sweden (Comedy Central Sweden), Poland (Comedy Central Polska), Germany (Comedy Central Deutschland), the Netherlands, Italy (Comedy Central Italia), Hungary, and in the UK and Republic of Ireland (Comedy Central UK). On April 1, 2009, New Zealand received the first localized Comedy Central channel outside of North America and Europe (Comedy Central New Zealand).

Programming

Main: List of programs broadcast by Comedy Central

Creation

In November 1989, Time Warner, owners of HBO, launched The Comedy Channel as the first cable channel devoted exclusively to comedy-based programming. In April 1990, Viacom (who owned MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon) launched a rival channel called Ha! that featured reruns of situation comedies. After two years of limited distribution, the two channels merged into one, relaunching on April Fools' Day 1991 as CTV: The Comedy Network, soon changing its name to Comedy Central. Viacom bought out Time Warner's half in April 2003 for $1.23 billion.

1991–1997

From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, much of the programming on Comedy Central, and its predecessors, consisted of comedy films, sitcom reruns, half-hour specials and clip shows featuring stand-up comedians. With the exception of the cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000, the channel had a relatively small viewership. A notable early success was Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, which after showing promise on Comedy Central was quickly snapped up by the ABC network. Additionally, The Daily Show had got its start with premiere host Craig Kilborn, although it would take a few more years for the show to reach high popularity (and shift toward a focus on political humor) with the introduction of Jon Stewart. Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was also a notable original program from this era, as well as the game show Win Ben Stein's Money. Successful non-original programming included British shows such as the U.K. edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (predecessor of the U.S. version, featuring much of the same American cast as would later be seen in the U.S.) and the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Some later seasons of "AbFab", as it was informally known, were partially financed by Comedy Central.

Comedy Central also aired nationwide reruns of Seattle's Almost Live! between 1992 and 1993.

South Park

The channel made a breakthrough when South Park premiered in 1997. The first major cable show to carry the TV-MA rating for mature audiences, the show was too controversial to be picked up by a mainstream network. As word of mouth spread, the number of people who requested that Comedy Central be added to their cable systems increased, and the channel became available in over 50% of American homes by 1998.