• The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:45 AM

Comedy Central, whose parent Viacom pulled its content from YouTube, is introducing original Web content to TV. The new offerings include a half-hour series called "Web Shows," which premieres this Monday at 2 a.m. ET/PT and features a variety of content from Comedy Central's Web site Motherload, as well as an AtomFilms Webisode called "The Punk Group: Fat Girls on Bicycles."

The latter marks the first collaboration between new property AtomFilms and its Viacom cousins. Comedy Central has ordered six episodes of "Web Shows," which will include animation, live-action narratives and comedy programming.

The idea, says Lou Wallach, Comedy Central's senior vice president, original programming and development, is cross-talent promotion. Comedy Central really needed to better promote original content from Motherload. As a standalone site with a different brand, it just hangs out there in cyberspace; many Comedy Central fans know little about it. By showing its programming online, the Web division hopes audiences will crossover. Viacom has launched similar initiatives with its other brands, including SpikeTV.

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