Viceland Slots First Comedy ‘Nirvanna The Band The Show’
Viceland will roll out its first comedy with the “semi-scripted” series Nirvanna The Band the Show premiering Feb. 2. That show joins a pair of other new series, unscripted Hate Thy Neighbor and Rise, to debut in early 2017.
Viceland, a venture between Vice Media and A+E Networks, has also acquired its first off-net show with the British comedy People Just Do Nothing.
The network, which launched last winter with a slate of originals, has also renewed Noisey and F*ck, That’s Delicious.
Hate Thy Neighbor sees comedian Jamali Maddix confront racism around the globe. It comes from Viceland U.K. and features six episodes, the first debuting Jan. 9.
Rise, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 27, is a documentary series focused on “the frontlines of global Indigenous resistance,” according to Vice, including the Standing Rock Sioux protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The series is produced by Vice Studio Canada, in partnership with Rogers Media and APTN.
Nirvanna The Band The Show debuts Feb. 2 and comes from Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol. The series follows two friends who go to unnecessary extremes in the hopes of booking their band at Toronto club The Rivoli. As Vice describes it, “the show is as unpredictable to the viewer as it is to its unwitting supporting cast.”
Nirvanna the Band the Show is a Vice Studio Canada and Rogers Media original production.
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Executive produced by Ash Atalla, People Just Do Nothing too debuts Feb. 2. From Fremantle Media International, the mockumentary series follows a hapless crew of dropouts running a pirate radio station in West London. Roughcut TV produces.
Food show F*ck, That’s Delicious has its season debut Jan. 5 and music program Noisey returns Jan. 10.
Vice has also announced that rookie series Balls Deep, Gaycation and Weediquetteare returning.
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.