NEW YORK, March 12, 2014 – Comedy Central has extended the Emmy®-nominated “Key & Peele” and given a development deal to Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele to expand their Critiquer’s Corner “Vandaveon & Mike” characters into an animated series, it was announced today by Kent Alterman, President, Content Development and Original Programming, Comedy Central.
“Key & Peele” is created by and stars Key and Peele and is Executive Produced by Key, Peele, Jay Martel, Ian Roberts and Joel Zadak. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central. This extension brings the fourth season order to 22 episodes, 20 originals plus two “best of” episodes. The animated project in development is based on their “Vandaveon & Mike” characters set as 12 year-old hall monitors navigating their way through middle school.
“Keegan and Jordan keep generating such a limitless supply of funny, inventive sketches, I’m starting to think they are not only 1/2 black and 1/2 white, but also 3/4 alien,” said Alterman.
The third season of “Key & Peele,” which concluded in December, averaged 2 million total viewers each week and ranked #1 in cable in its timeslot (Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m.) with Men 18-34 and was in the top five with Adults 18-49.*
A true multi-platform hit, “Key & Peele” videos, including “East/West College Bowl,” “Pizza Order,”
“I Said Bitch,” “Auction Block” and the classic “Obama Loses His S**t,” have generated over 500 million total streams, with nine of the top ten clips on the Comedy Central YouTube channel coming from the series, highlighted by the#1 clip on the channel, “Substitute Teacher,” with over 44 million streams to date.
Key and Peele are best known for their impressive ability for improv, celebrity impressions and conjuring up original characters. The show utilizes a combination of filmed sketches and live stage segments to examine life in a provocative and irreverent way, from two men used to being on the outside looking in. Whether it’s satirizing the President, spoofing musical acts, or taking on religion, “Key & Peele” showcases their chemistry, camaraderie and unique point of view, born from their shared background and experiences growing up biracial in a not quite post-racial world.
“Key & Peele” has welcomed an array of guest stars over the past three seasons including Wayne Brady, James Callis, Andrew Daly, Colin Hanks, Gabriel Iglesias, Natasha Leggero, Jack McBrayer, Metta World Peace, Jason Schwartzman, Kevin Sorbo, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and YouTube sensation Freddie Wong.
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