COMEDY CENTRAL'S(R) "@MIDNIGHT WITH CHRIS HARDWICK" IS THE FIRST EVER LATE-NIGHT SHOW TO BROADCAST LIVE EXCLUSIVELY ON PERISCOPE DURING THE FIRST NIGHT AT SXSW INTERACTIVE

This Special SXSW Live Show is An Off-Air Event Which Will Take Place at The Parish on Friday, March 11 at 9 p.m. and Feature Panelists Doug Benson, Arden Myrin and Chris Cubas

NEW YORK, February 24, 2016 - Scoring points and hearts in Austin as the Emmy-Award winning late night hit "@midnight with Chris Hardwick" becomes the first ever late-night series to broadcast a full episode live exclusively on Periscope. In partnership with SXSW Comedy, Comedy Central's "@midnight with Chris Hardwick" Live is free to SXSW badge holders and takes place during the first night of Interactive on Friday, March 11 at The Parish (214 E 6th St.). Doors open at 8:00 p.m. and the show begins at 9:00 p.m.

Hosted by Chris Hardwick (@hardwick), this special SXSW live show is an off-air event which will give fans beyond Austin the unique opportunity to experience the innovative live stream on Periscope as panelists Doug Benson, Arden Myrin and "@midnight's" #PointsMe winner and Austin local, Chris Cubas, battle for points as the entire show plays out on Periscope.

"There's no better place than SXSW to host the first ever live Periscope episode of TV's most social late night show," said Walter Levitt, Chief Marketing Officer, Comedy Central. "We are excited to host hundreds of '@midnight' fans live in Austin, and to bring it to thousands more from the comfort of their homes."

"We are so pleased to work with Comedy Central on this inventive use of Periscope, which will offer '@midnight' fans the opportunity to enjoy the entire show live, exclusively on Periscope and Twitter," says Joanne Park, TV Partnerships at Twitter. "Periscope allows anyone to share a moment as it's happening, and in celebration of SXSW, fans can now experience '@midnight' in a new way."

Dominating and commenting on the social media landscape unlike any series in the late-night arena with a dedicated digital production team responsible for creating and sharing content across all platforms, Emmy(R)-Award winning, "@midnight with Chris Hardwick," produced by Funny Or Die, is the most social of the late-night talk shows, generating an average of 243,000 weekly social mentions.

The series leads viewers down the ultimate internet wormhole with a rotating lineup of today's top comedians battling nightly to determine who has the funniest take on the day's social media and pop culture. Using social media as the catalyst and a fake game show as the setting, "@midnight" challenges comedians to win the Internet by slashing the craziest, most absurd news and posts that social media has to offer: from the creepiest Craigslist posting to Buzzspeed lists and infamous #HashtagWars.

Guest panelists that have appeared on the show include Judd Apatow, Doug Benson, Jason Biggs, Neal Brennan, Hannibal Buress, LeVar Burton, Ice Cube, Andy Daly, Will Ferrell, James Franco, Ilana Glazer, Seth Green, Jon Hamm, Jonah Hill, Abbi Jacobson, Kyle Kinane, David Koechner, Natasha Leggero, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Marc Maron, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Jonah Ray, Rob Riggle, Seth Rogen, R2-D2, Kristen Schaal, David Spade, Ben Stiller, Amber Tamblyn, Channing Tatum, Aisha Tyler, David Wain, Wil Wheaton, and Weird Al Yankovic along with the casts of "RENO 911!," and "The Walking Dead."

"@midnight with Chris Hardwick" is executive produced by Hardwick, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant; Mike Farah and Joe Farrell for Funny Or Die; Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler and Jon Zimelis of Serious Business; showrunner Jack Martin; and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.

Available on-air, online and on-the-go, 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).

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