FILLING TV'S BLACK HOLE: DAVID ALAN GRIER'S "CHOCOLATE NEWS" PREMIERES ON COMEDY CENTRAL� WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15 AT 10:30 P.M.

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Completely Biased Comedy To Blow The Lid Off The Urban Experience In Modern America

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New York, September 24, 2008 -- David Alan Grier adds a new flavor to COMEDY CENTRAL with "Chocolate News," an outrageous, character-driven sketch magazine series debuting Wednesday, October 15 at 10:30 p.m. "In Living Color" alum and Tony� Award-nominee David Alan Grier is the creator, executive producer and host of "Chocolate News," a hilarious take on pop culture events that makes no apologies for its biased approach.

An encore presentation of the debut episode of "Chocolate News" will air October 15 at 11:00 p.m. The ten-episode series will regularly air on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. (all times ET/PT)

"Chocolate News" will take on a variety of contemporary topics from a decidedly African-American perspective and everyone and everything is fair game. The series stars David Alan Grier who, in addition to serving as the acerbic, all-knowing, in-studio host, will also portray multiple characters within the series' investigative reports, which will be presented by a cast of three correspondents.

The debut episode features a story on platinum-selling rap artist Phat Man (portrayed by Grier) with a hilarious, politically incorrect music video PSA promoting the "No Child Left Behind" act. The episode includes the recurring segment, "Can I Flow?" in which Grier presents a topical comedic editorial/rant. This episode's "Can I Flow" focuses on the death of Hip Hop and Rap as Grier argues, "we should have seen the signs when Ice Cube went from "Kill at Will" to "Are We There Yet?" Also featured is a report on Poet Laureate Maya Angelou (played by Grier) reciting a poem she has composed to celebrate Obama's nomination. The poem begins innocently enough and then takes a decidedly "Chocolate News" twist with lines such as, "You have a mocha choke hold on the American Dream..."

Other surprising and revealing reports scheduled to be presented by Grier this season include: unmasking the shocking news that the super group KISS was originally black; "Fat Black Momma Syndrome," an investigation into the recent trend in Hollywood films of excessive "fat black mama" characters; "Vitahood," a report on Thelonias, founder of the "Jackie Robinson Empowerment Agency" who has devised a way to get drug addicts healthy by mixing vitamins in their illegal drugs; and "Tranny Wreck," a report on Candelabra, a cross-dressing transsexual who was once an aspiring NBA player but now spends his time competing in transgender beauty pageants.

On www.comedycentral.com, the "Chocolate News" site will be an extension of the news magazine format online, allowing users to immerse themselves more deeply in the stories they see on-air and to also discover a wealth of Web-only comedy. The site will feature a blog with contributions from show correspondents, writers and Grier himself, plus exclusive video blog entries. In addition, site visitors can catch extended scenes, outtakes and bloopers from the show and view a comprehensive collection of previews and highlights from each episode.

Trained in Shakespeare at Yale, Grier began his professional career on Broadway as Jackie Robinson in "The First." He joined the cast of "Dreamgirls" and went on to star opposite Denzel Washington in "A Soldier's Story," in both the theater and film versions. Grier starred on Broadway in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and has also performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival in productions of "Richard III" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in Central Park. Grier's network television credits include "Life With Bonnie" opposite Bonnie Hunt, "DAG" as the title character, "In Living Color," "Damon," opposite Damon Wayans and in the miniseries "The 60's" and "King of Texas" for cable television. In addition, Grier has gained recognition for his numerous feature film roles, including "BADASSS!", "The Woodsman" opposite Kevin Bacon and Mos Def, "15 Minutes," "Boomerang," "Bewitched," "Jumanji" and Robert Altman's "Streamers."

"Chocolate News" is executive produced by David Alan Grier, Robert Morton, Fax Bahr and Adam Small and independent production and management studio Generate's Peter Aronson and Jordan Levin. Gary Mann is the executive in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL. The debut episode of "Chocolate News" is sponsored by Take-Two.

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 95 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is www.comedycentral.com.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company's portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 350 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, Atom, Gametrailers and Xfire.