The new 11 O'Clock Show...

C4 launches nightly comedy programme

Channel 4 is to launch a new nightly comedy show in the vein of the 11 O'Clock Show.

The topical programme, which has the working title The Nightly Show, will air on weeknights over three weeks in August and be hosted by Jason Manford.

The broadcaster – which has declared August new talent month – said the new show had been ‘specially commissioned to promote a new generation of comics’.

The 11 O'Clock Show, which ran from 1998 to 2000, was largely derided by critics at the time, but it provided a launchpad for the likes of Ricky Gervais, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daisy Donovan and Iain Lee.

As previously announced, Channel 4's spring and summer line-up will also include two comedy series that originally piloted as Comedy Showcase programmes last year: The Kevin Bishop Show and Plus One, which starred Rory Kinnear as a man whose girlfriend left him to marry Duncan from boyband Blue.

Peep Show will also return for a fifth series, and Channel 4’s showcase for new comedy talent Comedy Lab also returns.

Here's Ricky Gervais on the original 11 O'Clock Show:

The 11 O'Clock Show Ricky Gervais - More bloopers are a click away

Published: 26 Mar 2008

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