EXCLUSIVE: It was revealed last night during Deadline’s Emmy season virtual screening of Comedy Central’s Drunk History that the Derek Waters-Jeremy Konner series will not advance by a seventh season, originally ordered last summer.
The sixth – and now definitive – season of the series, which wrapped up its run on August 6, 2019, is ready for three Emmy nominations, Outstanding Variety Sketch series, as well as excellent costumes and production design for a Reality series / Variety / Competition. Drunk History, which receives a strong push from ViacomCBS in its farewell award season, has been nominated in the Top Diversity category every year since the category was launched in 2015.
Drunk History will continue to air around the world in various local formats. Waters, who provided the news that the series has closed on Comedy Central, has a first-look deal with the network and will agree to work on new projects.
Season 7 of Drunk History was in pre-production and taped some of the cabaret stories when the coronavirus pandemic stopped in mid-March for all film and TV production activities.
Not related to COVID, ViacomCBS ‘Entertainment and Youth Group has in recent months re-evaluated the programming strategies for all markets, and mapped out a new path for Comedy Central.
As part of this, the comedy-centric cable network has paired its live-action track while shifting its focus on adult animation, tapping IP via ViacomCBS to build an original animated lead section to stalwart South Park. In the past few months, the network has been greenlighted Beavis and Butt-Head and The Ren & Stimpy Show restart as Daria spinoff Jodie.
We hear the high production costs Drunk history, who has period divisions also played a role in the decision not to continue with another season. With the veteran sketch comedy ending and The Other Two en South side recently moved to HBO Max, Comedy Central’s only remaining original live action series is breakout Awkwafina Is Nora Fan Queens.
During his six-season run Drunk History stepped up 17 Primetime Emmy nominations, including a win Outstanding Costumes in for a Variety Program as Special in 2015 for costume designer Christina Mongini and costume supervisor Cassandra Conners.
Drunk History started as a web series on the Waters YouTube page and then moved on to Funny or Die. The concept included from the beginning an inebriated narrator, often an emerging cabaret artist or UCB sketch artist, who recreates an obscure historical story that is then re-introduced by famous stars. As for reenactments, the series drew a wash list with guests including Tiffany Haddish, Winona Ryder, Maya Rudolph, Seth Rogen, Kirsten Dunst, Will Ferrell, Tessa Thompson, Vanessa Hudgens, Colni Hanks, Quest Love and Lyn-Manuel Miranda, the last one an episode dedicated to Alexander Hamilton.
The season six Emmy-submitted finale “Bad Blood” directed by Konner stars Aubrey Plaza and David Wain in a story about Cleopatra who is reversed by her 11-year-old sister Arsinoe as Julius Caeser arrives in Alexandria. Ironically, the episode, which aired months before the pandemic, also featured a story about Typhoid Mary (played by Betsy Sodaro) as the first asymptomatic patient.
