Doug Herzog

Doug Herzog is the president of Comedy Central. He rejoined Comedy Central in 2004, after working there during the 1990s, when he was instrumental in introducing South Park and The Daily Show, now Comedy Central's two highest-rated shows. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2136x3213, 2919 KB)Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central Publicity photo from press. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2136x3213, 2919 KB)Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central Publicity photo from press. ... Comedy Central is a cable television and satellite television channel in the United States. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ... South Park is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about four fourth grade school boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. ... The Daily Show (currently The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) is a Peabody and Emmy-winning half-hour American satirical news television program produced by and run on the Comedy Central cable television network. ...

Herzog began his career at MTV, eventually becoming its vice-president of programming. One of his programming ideas was 1989’s Camp MTV, in which the then-current personalities of the channel invaded Camp Scatico, a sleep-away camp in upstate New York. Along for the trip were the stars of the film UHF, who used this programming block to promote its premiere later that month. Camp Scatico was selected because Herzog attended the camp as a youth in the 1970s. MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network headquartered in New York City. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Camp Scatico is a sleep-away camp for boys and girls that is located in the picturesque Berkshire Mountains of Eastern New York State (Columbia County) and has been in operation since 1921. ... UHF (also known as The Vidiot from UHF in Australia and parts of Europe, and Los Telelocos in Mexico) is a comedy film made in 1989. ...

In 2005, Herzog was responsible for signing a new three-year contract with South Park, saying he hoped to continue airing South Park on Comedy Central forever; and for agreeing to introduce The Colbert Report, reportedly after hearing a one-line pitch, "Our version of the O'Reilly Factor with Stephen Colbert," from producers Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Ben Karlin. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Colbert Report (pronounced )[1] is an American satirical television program on Comedy Central that stars comedian Stephen Colbert, best known previously as a senior correspondent for The Daily Show. ... The OReilly Factor is a show on FOX News hosted by Bill OReilly that discusses political and social issues of the day, with both conservative and liberal guests. ... Stephen Tyrone Colbert (IPA: )(born May 13, 1964) is a four-time Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor, and writer, known for his satirical style and deadpan comedic delivery. ... Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz on November 28, 1962) is a nine-time Emmy-winning American comedian, satirist, actor, author, and producer. ... Stephen Tyrone Colbert (IPA: )(born May 13, 1964) is a four-time Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor, and writer, known for his satirical style and deadpan comedic delivery. ... Editor of America (The Book). ...

Herzog is also focused on an aggressive slate of new original programs for 2006, including a second spin-off of The Daily Show featuring Lewis Black, entitled Red State Diaries. 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, and actor. ... Red State Diaries is a TV show starring comedian Lewis Black, being developed for Comedy Central to begin airing in 2006. ...

Herzog is also infamous for being the man behind the cancellation of Mystery Science Theater 3000 from Comedy Central. After giving the producers a six episode contract (with an option for three more episodes which was not exercised) for their seventh season, he didn't renew the show. The show moved to the Sci Fi Channel the next year. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988–1999), usually abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. ... SCI FI (sometimes rendered Sci-Fi when part of a longer phrase) is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. ...

Between his two stints with Comedy Central, Herzog held senior positions with USA Network and Fox, where he helped introduce Monk and Malcolm in the Middle, respectively. Prior to his first association with Comedy Central, Herzog had been an associate producer on CNN and TBS, and a senior manager at MTV for eleven years, where he helped introduce MTV News, The Real World, Road Rules, Beavis and Butt-head, The MTV Movie Awards, and The MTV Video Music Awards. The USA Network is a popular American cable TV network with about 89 million household subscribers as of 2005. ... The Fox Broadcasting Company, usually referred to as just Fox (the company itself prefers the capitalized version FOX), is a television network in the United States. ... Monk is a television show about an obsessive-compulsive detective named Adrian Monk (played by actor Tony Shalhoub). ... Malcolm in the Middle is an American situation comedy created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. ... The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ... TBS also stands for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a Japanese television network. ... MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network headquartered in New York City. ... MTV News is the news division of television channel MTV. // Current USA reporters Sway Calloway (usually called Sway) Alisha Davis Kurt Loder John Norris SuChin Pak Gideon Yago Former USA reporters Serena Altschul Chris Connelly Brian McFayden Iann Robinson Tabitha Soren Alison Stewart Nick Zano MTV News UK Tim Kash... The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally executive produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray and produced and directed by George Verschoor. ... MTVs Road Rules, MTVs second reality show, debuted on July 19, 1995. ... Beavis and Butt-Head was an American animated television series that originally aired on the cable television channel MTV from 1993 to 1997. ... The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV. It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. ... The MTV Video Music Awards were established in 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. ...

As a side note, in episode 4 of season 10 on South Park ("Cartoon Wars 2"), Kyle calls out Doug Herzog by name when confronting The President of Fox Television about caving into political pressure and fear for not depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Kyle explains that doing so would infringe on the rights of the 1st Amendment and play into the hands of terrorism. In this episode (a continuation of Cartoon Wars) the popular Fox Television Show Family Guy is parodied and used as a metaphor for South Park, while "Fox 11" is a metaphor for Comedy Central. Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of South Park) announced to the world that they will caricature Mohammed next week, and dared Comedy Central to stop them. South Park first depicted the Prophet Mohammed 5 years ago in an episode where Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and other religious figures form a group of "Super Friends" to battle it out against the cult following of street magician David Blaine. Comedy Central did show the Prophet in the episode "Cartoon Wars 2" when it first aired, yet refused to show him again and has even censored the iTunes download-able version, with a disclaimer stated during the controversial depiction as followed: "In this shot, Mohammed hands a football helmet to Family Guy. Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network." Comedy Central did pull a controversial episode of South Park in which Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology are lampooned. The kids from South Park, and assumedly the creators Matt and Trey's line of reasoning is that if you pull one show, then a trend will start where more and more shows will have to be pulled, ultimately ending a show, just like in the case of Laverne & Shirley.

External links

• Doug Herzog bio at Comedy Central