VH1 announced that “Wild ‘N Out” will premiere its 300th episode on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. ET. The premiere will kick off the comedy show’s next season, with new episodes airing on the following Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Hosted by Nick Cannon, this season’s guest stars and performances include Fat Joe, Wyclef Jean, Tommy Davidson, Saucy Santana, Miles Brown, G-Eazy and Kossiko, Dreamdoll, Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, Jimmy Allen, Lisa Raye, Kid ‘N Play and Mariah the Scientist. “Wild ‘N Out” is also partnering with Super League Gaming this season to produce live streams for three weeks. Each week within Minehut, Super League’s Minecraft community, players will be able to freestyle rap, discuss the new “Wild ‘N Out” episodes and more on “Wild ‘N Out: Metaverse Remix” at 9 p.m. ET beginning Feb. 22.
“Wild ‘N Out” features improvisational comedy games and celebrity guests that lead teams in a series of challenges. The show has increased exposure for some of today’s big names in the comedy world — including Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson and Taran Killam. The freestyle show has also included celebrity guests like Chance the Rapper, Doja Cat, Kanye West and Chrissy Teigen.
“Wild ‘N Out’ is one of our most creative show formats, so it’s an ideal series to explore interactive ways in which audiences can engage and make creative decisions while experiencing the show,” said Jason White, CMO, MTV Entertainment Group.
“Wild ‘N Out” is executive produced by Cannon, Michael Goldman and Candida Boyette-Clemons. Nile Evans and Annie Gillies serve as showrunners and additional executive producers, with Tishawn Smikle and Amy Starr as co-executive producers.
Also in today’s TV News:
PROGRAMMING
WarnerMedia Kids and Family announced plans to expand its partnership with children’s book author, illustrator and playwright Mo Willems — including a slate of originals for HBO Max and Cartoon Network. With Stampede Ventures as producing partner, Willems signed a multi-year deal with WarnerMedia Kids and Family to create live-action “Storytime Specials,” as well as multiple animated and live-action series based on his children’s books. “Mo Willems and The Storytime All-Stars Present: Don’t Let the Pigeon Do Storytime!” and “Mo Willems Story Time Shorts!” are now available to stream on HBO Max. Upcoming projects include animated musical event, “Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience,” which will premiere this summer, and “Unlimited Squirrels,” an animated series debuting next year.
Apple TV Plus announced a new animated series for preschoolers, “Pretzel and the Puppies,” which will premiere Feb. 11 on the streaming platform. Based on canine characters from the book “Pretzel” by Margret and H.A. Rey, creators of Curious George, the original series is a new story about the dog family — which includes stay-at-home dad Pretzel, five Dachshund puppies and mom Greta, the mayor of Muttgomery. “Pretzel and the Puppies” will star Mark Duplass, Nasim Pedrad, Milo Stein, Alex Jayne Go, Max Mitchell, Amari McCoy and Gracen Newton. Hailing from HarperCollins Productions, the series is executive produced by Caroline Fraser, Ricardo Curtis and Wes Lui. The co-executive producer and showrunner is Steve Altiere. Jennifer Contrucci is also co-executive producer. Animation, design and CG are from House of Cool and Saturday Animation. Apple TV Plus released a trailer. Watch below.
LAUNCHES
Veteran television producer Stephen Land has announced his new endeavor, A3 Content, a Miami-based production company that will focus on financing and creating premium programming for streaming and linear platforms. The new company’s first project is the recently announced “Mysteries and Scandals,” for Telemundo’s new content hub Tplus on Peacock. A3 also has an unannounced feature documentary currently in production and has optioned the rights to “Dead City,” an Edgar Award-winning book series from children’s novelist James Ponti.
DATES
NBC drama “Transplant” will debut its second season on March 6 at 10 p.m. ET. The show follows the story of Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed (Hamza Haq), a skilled doctor and refugee from Syria, who escaped war in his country with his younger sister, Amira (Sirena Gulamgaus), for Canada. After a freak accident, Bash is able to practice medicine again by saving multiple lives in brilliant fashion, including that of Dr. Jed Bishop (John Hannah), the chief of emergency medicine at York Memorial Hospital in Toronto. Executive producers are Joseph Kay, Bruno Dubé, Jocelyn Deschênes, Virginia Rankin, Tara Woodbury, Josée Vallée and Adam Barken. Director Stefan Pleszczynski joins as executive producer and will direct six episodes.
The second season of NBC reality series “Weakest Link” will begin March 6 at 9 p.m. ET. Hosted by Emmy winner Jane Lynch, each episode features eight strangers who enter the studio as contestants and work together to earn the highest amount of prize money in each round while answering general knowledge questions. Following each round, contestants vote to remove the contestant they deem the “weakest link” in the chain. The most-voted for contestant leaves the game as Lynch states the iconic phrase, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.” The show is produced by BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio. Ryan O’Dowd serves as executive producer for BBC Studios. Stuart Krasnow, who executive produced the original NBC run, serves in the same role and is also showrunner. Lynch also executive produces.
EXECS
Crown Media Family Networks has announced that finance executive Julia Rao has joined the company as senior vice president of finance. In her new position, Rao will report to chief operating officer Andy Rooke, and will be in charge of developing strategic financial initiatives for the company, delivering short-term financial plans, budgets and forecasts as well as analyzing the financial impacts of new business opportunities. Rao joins from her old position as vice president and division CFO at Guitar Center, and has previously worked at industry leaders such as Discover Inc., Sony, IMAX and National Geographic. In 2015, she received the Women in Television Communications Geraldine B. Laybourne Fearless Award in recognition for her work in the industry.
Kristen Zolner has been named head of Imagine Television. Zolner will be in charge of development and production for scripted television. She comes to the company after having served as a director for original series at Netflix, where she oversaw series such as “Emily in Paris,” “Dead To Me,” “Big Mouth,” “The Woman in The House Across The Street From The Girl in the Window,” “Maniac,” and “Master of None.” She also programed the first 25 original stand-up specials produced by the company. Previously, she has also held positions at Amazon Studios and HBO.
AWARDS
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the recipients of the 73rd Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards last week. The ceremony, which takes place in Las Vegas on April 25, will honor the following: Shadow TV for video and audio search based on index feeds coming from multiple sources; GoPro and Socinext for in-camera sensor and software stabilization; Marvin H. White and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Group for correlated double sampling for image sensors; Peter J. W. Noble for pioneering development of an image-sensor array with buried-photodiode structure; MPEG and W3C – WebFonts Working Group for standardization of font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices; Apple, MLB Advanced Media, Microsoft and Netflix for common key technology of OTT content; Cable Labs, OATC and STCE for development of the event scheduling and notification interface; Arvato Systems Group, Editshare and Primestream (Ross) for cloud enabled remote editing and project management; Bell South, Cablevision, DirectTV and NCM Solutions for pioneering development of technologies to collect granular linear TV viewership data for measurement, marketing & advertising; Apple, MLB Advanced Media, MPEG, 3GPP for standardization of HTTP encapsulated protocols; and Haivision and Vitec for management of IP multicast video distribution to desktops and TVs in news and media production facilities.
LATE NIGHT
Will Arnett, Lisa Ling and Allen Stone will appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday, while Peyton Manning, Tariq Trotter and Anitta will guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will feature Whoopi Goldberg and Rep. Ro Khanna, while “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will include Ike Barinholtz, Bridget Everett and Hayley Brownell. Brooklyn Beckham, Patrick Wilson and Gunna will appear on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”