Ruell Howard joins Sky for a brand-new show

Russell Howard, one of the most successful comedians in the UK, will write and star in a new series for Sky 1.

In a two-year deal, the new show will first air on Sky 1 next year after the comedian has completed his forthcoming stand-up world tour. A non-TX pilot will deliver early December 2016.

Russell Howard said: I am delighted to be making this new show for Sky. It's obviously the best part of a year away but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in.

The series will sit alongside a strong line-up of award-winning entertainment shows for the whole family on Sky 1, including International Emmy-winning 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy, Rose d'Or-winning game show Wild Things and BAFTA-winning A League of Their Own.

Adam MacDonald, director of Sky 1, said: Russell is brilliantly funny and I cant wait for his intelligent and incisive wit to be a big part of Sky 1. His new show with us will be a fantastic mix of everything we love about Russell and lots of new inventive comedy. It will be an incredible addition to Sky 1.

Jon Thoday, Avalon Television joint managing director, said: We are excited to be working on a new show with Russell and delighted by Sky's ambition for it.

The 14-part weekly series will be filmed in front of a live studio audience and will be produced by Avalon Television. The series has been commissioned by Celia Taylor, head of non-scripted commissioning and Richard Ackerman, commissioning editor, at Sky. Executive producers are Richard Allen-Turner, James Taylor and Jon Thoday at Avalon Television.

For more information please contact:

Geraldine Jeffers

Sky

geraldine.jeffers@sky.uk OR Skyentpress@sky.uk

+44 (0)7815 494141

Dan Lloyd

Avalon

danl@avalonuk.com

+44 (0) 20 7598 7222

About Russell Howard

Russell Howard embarks on his second world tour in 2017, which sees 10 consecutive nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London, 17 further arena dates UK-wide and 29 international cities including: New York, Wellington, Toronto, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Sydney, Oslo, Washington DC, Chicago, Dublin, Helsinki, Vancouver, Reykjavik, Melbourne and San Francisco.

Alongside his TV appearances in the UK and internationally, Russell has a hugely popular YouTube channel. Launched in 2014, it allows fans to watch full episodes of Russell Howard's Good News (without piracy) in countries where the show doesn't broadcast, generating over 11 million views and watched in 180 countries (including North Korea and Vatican City). Russell is the most popular British comedian on Facebook with over 3 million fans and over one million followers on Twitter. The latest series of Russell Howard's Good News saw many segments go viral, from a passionate backing of junior doctors and the NHS (7 million views, described by Huffington Post as, incredible ), an interview destigmatising Tourettes (3.8 million views, described as, uplifting and hilarious by The Independent) and demonstrated the absurdity of the tampon tax (8 million views and Metro commenting, Russell nailed how stupid the tampon tax actually is ).

About Sky

Sky is Europes leading entertainment company, serving 22 million customers across five countries: UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy. We offer the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and use innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.

Sky has annual revenues of £12 billion and is Europes leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of £5.2 billion. The group employs 30,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).

For more information visit www.sky.com/corporate

About Avalon Television

Avalon Television is a completely independently owned production house operating out of New York, Los Angeles and London. Avalon Television are also currently in production with: the Emmy winning, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); the BBC's longest running sitcom, Not Going Out (BBC One); the multi award winning international hit, Catastrophe; Russell Howard & Mum: USA Road Trip (Comedy Central UK); a third series of the critically acclaimed sitcom, Man Down (Channel 4); Adam DeVine's House Party (Comedy Central USA); Taskmaster (UKTV); Unspun With Matt Forde (UKTV); Feeding Chris Ramsey w/t (Comedy Central UK); and series six of hit comedy, Workaholics (Comedy Central USA).

For more Avalon Television news visit: www.avalonuk.com/press

LINK:	https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2016/russell-howard-j...
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