Britain tunes in to fake news “Daily Show”

By Adam Pasick

LONDON (Reuters) – “The Daily Show,” comedian Jon Stewart’s
popular deconstruction of U.S. nightly newscasts, has struck
its first full-scale overseas syndication deal with UK
broadcaster Channel 4.

Stewart and his team of fake news correspondents will be a
cornerstone of Channel 4′s new digital channel More4, filing
nightly dispatches on U.S. politics, news media foibles and
Iraq’s “Mess O’ Potamia.”

American comedy has an uneven track record when it is
exported across the pond, but More4 boss Peter Dale is betting
that British audiences who are used to Ricky Gervais’ “The
Office” will latch onto “The Daily Show’s” sardonic
sensibility.

“I think it’s irresistible to an audience that likes an
irreverent brand of humour. It’s made for British audiences in
some ways,” he told Reuters on Friday, noting that Comedy
Central “seemed a bit surprised that we were interested.”

A weekly digest of the programme already runs on CNN
International — which like “The Daily Show’s” network Comedy
Central is owned by global media conglomerate Time Warner —
but Channel 4 will be the first overseas network to air the
show in its entirety.

“The Daily Show” took off during the U.S. presidential
elections, when a poll showed many viewers in the hard-to-reach
18-34 demographic were obtaining much of their news about the
race from the programme’s “Indecision 2004″ coverage.