Comedy Central Greenlights Fourth Season of Hit Stand-Up Series THIS IS NOT HAPPENING

Comedy Central's storytelling stand-up series, THIS IS NOT HAPPENING will return for a fourth season in 2017, it was announced today by Kent Alterman, President, Comedy Central. Executive produced by Ari Shaffir, Avalon's Sam Saifer, Jeff Tomsic, who directs, and Eric Abrams also acting as showrunner, the third season premieres ten episodes beginning tonight at midnight ET/PT.

"'This Is Not Happening' is a great platform for comedians to tell true, personal stories of humiliation, degradation and supreme embarrassment," said Alterman. "Or put another way...of being human."

"This season was awesome," said Shaffir. "We got this amazing mix of legends like Stanhope and Regan, new comics that I love being able to introduce to the public, and returning favorites like Diaz, Siddiq, and Kreischer. Nothing I ever do will be as great as Season 19 of 'South Park,' but this is something I'm really proud of. And I can't wait to start finding new comics with crazy stories for Season four."

"This Is Not Happening" features Shaffir and his comedian friends telling true-life, long-form stories in front of a live audience at Cheetahs in Hollywood. The third season includes stories from Gastor Almonte, LOUIE Anderson, Maria Bamford, Greg Behrendt, Lavell Crawford, Joey Diaz, Greg Fitzsimmons, Sean Flannery, Al Jackson, Bert Kreischer, Bobby Lee, Julian McCullough, Bonnie McFarlane, Big Jay Oakerson, Tom Papa, Russell Peters, Steve Rannazzisi, Brian Regan, Rory Scovel, Ali Siddiq, Steve Simeone, Doug Stanhope, Nick Thune, Liza Treyger, Sal Vulcano and Andrew W.K. reliving their favorite, most embarrassing, or funniest true-life tales about mortality, the law, romance, adventure, drugs, family and more! Each episode features a custom open in which Shaffir meets a different gruesome death time and time again - all brought to life by director Tomsic.

The premiere episode, titled "Scumbag," features stories about encounters with the worst people imaginable from Shaffir and Vulcano. Sometimes those terrible people are themselves. "This Is Not Happening" originally debuted as a digital series on cc.com and the site continues to feature exclusive digital stories from Sofiya Alexandra, Aaron Berg, Pete Johansson, Joe List, Dave Ross, Scruncho,
Ryan Sickler and Dan St. Germain throughout the run of new episodes. Anne Harris and Ryan Moran are the Executives in Charge for Comedy Central.

Episodes of "This Is Not Happening" will be available the day of premiere on the Comedy Central App and ThisIsNotHappening.com, and season 2 is available now. Leading up to the on-air premiere, Comedy Central Stand-Up and ThisIsNotHappening.com will feature preview stories and digital exclusives from the new season, including an interview with Shaffir about the origin of the live show and its journey to Comedy Central. Additional exclusive content, including unaired and extended versions of stories, will appear on the site and other platforms throughout the season and following the season finale. The Comedy Central channel on Snapchat Discover and the CC app will also feature stories from "This Is Not Happening." Fans can follow Comedy Central Stand-Up on Twitter at @standup, and tweet using the hashtag #ThisIsNotHappening to join the social conversation around the series.

Comedy Central is the home for the biggest names in stand-up including one-hour specials from top comedians Amy Schumer, Daniel Tosh, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Jim Gaffigan, HANNIBAL Buress, Natasha Leggero, Chris Hardwick, David Spade, Gabriel Iglesias, Patton Oswalt, Aziz Ansari, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, and more. Comedy Central stand-up series include "Adam Devine's House Party," "This Is Not Happening," "The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail," and "The Half Hour."

Available on-air, online and on-the-go via the Comedy Central App, Comedy Central (www.cc.com) is the #1 brand in comedy and is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA and VIAB). For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Comedy Central's press Web site at press.cc.com and follow us on Twitter @ComedyCentralPR for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.

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