You have to admire Fox’s balls. Seven years after the cancellation ofMADtv, the network is coming back into the late-night sketch comedy game with a new series calledParty Over Here. Not only will it take on a similar format to that ofSaturday Night Live, but it will also air on Saturdays and involveSNLveteransAndy Samberg,Akiva Schaffer, andJorma Taccone, better known as “The Lonely Island” trio.
According to a press release,Party Over Herewill air as a half-hour sketch comedy series starting with its first episode on Saturday, March 12th at 11:00 p.m. EST. Featuring performersNicole Byer(Girl Code),Jessica McKenna(Riot), andAlison Rich(Resident Advisors), the project is described as follows:
Skewering everything from pop culture to politics, PARTY OVER HERE will feature sketch comedy shorts, along with in-studio segments filmed in front of a live audience at the Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone, who famously developed thoseSNLDigital Shorts, will executive produceParty Over HerewithPaul Scheer(The League), who will also direct some of the episodes. In a statement from The Lonely Island, the series was first conceived as a spinoff ofEmpire:
“We failed miserably…now it’s much more of a sketch comedy show.”
David Maddenof Fox remarked how “wildly competitive” the late-night landscape is, saying, “We thought long and hard about the kind of audacious, attention-getting voices we needed.”
CanParty Over Herestand up against the juggernaut that isSNL? As Scheer joked,
In an age where most millennials don’t even know what a TV is, we are really excited to be getting into the TV business.
Aside fromMADtv, Fox also hadIn Living Colorin years past that featured the Wayans Brothers and stars likeJim CarreyandJamie Foxx. That too was eventually dropped from the network’s slate, which isn’t exactly a good track record. For better or worse,Party Over Herewill surely be one interesting project to watch.
