What’s happening in the comedy world these days…
- Johnny Carson is coming back to your TVs in primetime, with Conan O’Brien hosting The Tonight Show once more? Yes, yes, and here’s why and how: A remix of classic interviews called Carson on TCM bows Monday nights this summer, starting July 1. Interviews come straight from Carson’s archive from the 1970s and 1980s.
- SiriusXM Radio also will be going back in time this weekend, launching a three-day channel for “Richard Pryor Radio,” starting at 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday, June 7, hosted by Jamie Foxx on SiriusXM channel 96. Foxx will introduce Pryor’s legendary concert footage and other material throughout the weekend to celebrate the upcoming release of No Pryor Restraint: Life in Concert.
- “The Colbert Report” will expand to an hour on Wednesday, June 12, when Stephen Colbert welcomes Sir Paul McCartney. The super-sized show will feature an interview as well as performances of songs featured on McCartney’s current Out There tour, the new 2013 reissue of “Wings Over America” and more with one song to be exclusively available at www.ColbertNation.com.
- Emily Spivey, the former SNL writer who created NBC’s Up All Night, has joined ABC’s Modern Family as a writer.
- ABC’s Suburgatory is cutting Alan Tudyk and Rex Lee from the cast in cutting costs for a budgeted third season.
- Production began this week on the IFC miniseries, The Spoils of Babylon, starring Will Ferrell and executive-produced by Ferrell, Adam McKay, Matt Piedmont, Andrew Steele and Nate Young. Airing over six half-hours in 2014, the cast will include Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Tobey Maguire, Haley Joel Osment, Michael Sheen, Tim Robbins and Kristen Wiig.
- Comedy Central has set its schedule for July special programming. July 9: The first season of Drunk History debuts, followed by the return of The Jeselnik Offensive. July 20: Kumail Nanjiani’s first hourlong stand-up special, “Beta Male,” debuts. July 26: Season four of John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show debuts.
- EPIX kicks off a new summer season of Comedy Unbound on June 7 with the premiere of former SNL funnyman Jim Breuer’s one-hour special “And Laughter For All.” The Comedy Unbound series, airing Fridays at 10 p.m., will also include new specials from Sherri Shepherd, Tom Papa and Jim Norton later this summer.