English Entertainment
Comedy Central to bring `Distraction’ back for second season
MUMBAI: Comedy Central has ordered a second season of the network’s hit game show – Distraction.
The announcement was made by Comedy Central executive vice president, original programming and development Lauren Corrao. The second season order is for 14 episodes and it will premiere in the first half of 2006.
Produced by FremantleMedia North America and hosted by British comedian Jimmy Carr, this outrageous, laugh-out-loud game show revolves around Carr’s sharp, dry wit and his brash dealings with contestants.
Based on FremantleMedia’s British show of the same name, Distraction demands the ultimate in physical and mental endurance from its contestants. The show pitches four rivals in a battle of wits to answer general knowledge questions while being “distracted” by a series of challenges, aimed at throwing them off course.
“We’re excited to bring Distraction back for a second season of nudists, masochists and narcissists. The focus of the contestants is truly amazing to watch and they’ll need every ounce of it as they put themselves through the challenges the writers and producers have cooked up for the new season,” said Corrao.
“We are very proud of the outstanding response to the first season of Distraction. We look forward to building on our success with Comedy Central as we head into another season,” said FremantleMedia North America CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz.
New distractions for the second season include: Tattoo – tattoo – artists administer fresh tattoos while contestants try to concentrate on answering questions; Nudist on Turntables – wearing nothing but index cards with answers written on them, nudists rotate on a turntable as contestants are asked questions that correlate to the answers on the cards and must take the cards/answers off the nudists with their teeth; Electrocution – contestants receive an electric shock every time they blink as they attempt to answer questions; Geese Peck – contestants must answer questions while lying down in a pen, covered with feed, as geese eat off their bodies; and Catapult – a small catapult throws a bevy of items such as eggs, pies and flour into the contestants’ faces each time they buzz in to answer a question.
First season distractions that will make an encore include: Clothes Pins – contestants must attach as many clothespins on their face as possible during a speed round of questions; Wrestlers, huge wrestlers body slam and throw contestants around while they are asked and answer a variety of questions; and Hot Shots, contestants down a shot of hot sauce before they can answer each question.
Carr, the current host of Distraction in the UK, is a frequent performer at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival and the US Comedy Arts Festival. He has also appeared on shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien.
Distraction is executive produced by Michael Dugan, whose credits include Comedy Central’s Trigger Happy TV, the game show Smush for USA Network and Apt. 2F for MTV.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
