Building the fun Bomb

摘要

Last may, shortly after being named president of Comedy Central, Doug Her-zog spent a day at a Santa Monica luxury hotel called Shutters on the Beach. Gathered around him were the channel's 15 or so programming execs. They were there to talk about the big stuff: the brand, the Zeitgeist, and where to go from here. With hits like South Park and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Comedy Central is Scoring big with its bull's-eye target - white, college-educated, post-frat-boy males. The channel's snarky humor has made it second only to ESPN among men 18 to 34. The success it's had with Chappelle's Show - big ratings, three Emmy nominations - proved that a black, hip hop comic could hold the core audience and pull in new viewers as well. But where will the next big comedy hit come from? Some people might think to look for the answer at the annual comedy festival in Aspen, Colorado, but not Herzog. "Don't ever try to sell me a show by saying, 'They killed in Aspen,'" he told his team at the retreat, because that just means a bunch of comedy snobs loved it.