MTV ELEVATES ITS TALENT GAME WITH NEW COMEDY SERIES "SAFEWORD" FROM THE PRODUCERS OF "LIP SYNC BATTLE"

A-LISTERS KEVIN HART, MARLON WAYANS, AMBER ROSE, CHRIS "LUDACRIS" BRIDGES AND MANY MORE TO APPEAR

"SafeWord" Joins "Wild 'N Out" For MTV's "Throwdown Thursdays" Comedy Block Thursday, July 13 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT

New York, NY (June 26, 2017) - MTV today announced the debut of new comedy series, "SafeWord," where famous friends become famous frenemies all for a good laugh. "SafeWord" will premiere on Thursday, July 13 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, immediately following a new episode of "Wild 'N Out" and as part of MTV's "Throwdown Thursdays" comedy block.

From the producers of "Lip Sync Battle" and hosted by Terrence J, the star-studded season will feature Kevin Hart, Damien Dante Wayans, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Marlon Wayans, Kelly Rowland, Nelly, LaLa Anthony, Amber Rose, "13 Reasons Why" cast mates Ross Butler and Justin Prentice, Charlamagne Tha God, Drake Bell, Lil Rel Howery, Jermaine Fowler and more.

"SafeWord" is based off the U.K. format that aired on itv2 and was originally developed and produced by STV Productions and Motion Content Group. In each episode, the celebrity guests will partner with superstar comedians, including Carly Aquilino, Sam Jay, Ricky Velez, Leonard Ouzts, Taylor Tomlinson, Akaash Singh, Matt Pavich, Sherry Cola to help them play a series of games in front a live audience. Throughout multiple rounds, the teams go head-to-head daring each other in a variety of challenges including social media games that have already stirred up quite a bit of controversy. In the spirit of a friendly comedy roast, the celebs are tasked with taking the heat, but can always stop the pain by using their "safeword."

For more, follow the show on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @mtvsafeword or visit www.mtv.com/shows/safeword.

"SafeWord" is Executive Produced Jay Peterson, Todd Lubin and Jerry Carita for Matador. James Sunderland serves as showrunner. Terrence Jenkins serves as host and Executive Producer. Candida Boyette-Clemons and Paul Ricci are Executive Producers for MTV. The series is directed by Michael Simon.

ABOUT TERRENCE J:

From hosting to acting in worldwide box office hit films including Think Like a Man, Think Like a Man Too and The Perfect Match to penning his first literary work, The Wealth Of My Mother's Wisdom and all the credentials in between, Terrence J, a New York native, has shown skilled versatility among a vast number of different arenas. After seven years of hosting BET's "106 & Park," Terrence is one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood as the former co-anchor of the international news program "E! News" and as a producer and host for "Miss USA 2016." Most recently he hosted the "2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards Festival," the "2017 MTV Woodies" and the "Are You The One?" season five reunion, "The Final Matchup."

ABOUT MATADOR:

Matador is a full-service content studio with offices in New York and Los Angeles. After only four years, Matador has produced over twenty-eight series for TV as well as sports and feature documentary specials, virtual reality content and digital programs across multiple networks, including "Lip Sync Battle" on Spike, the series that turned into a phenomenon.

ABOUT STV:

STV Productions is one of the UK's leading content businesses, with a record of success across a range of genres, including drama, entertainment and factual, for a wide range of broadcasters, and hit shows including Antiques Road Trip for BBC1, Catchphrase for ITV and Safeword for ITV2.

ABOUT MOTION CONTENT GROUP:

Motion Content Group is a global content investment and rights management company which meets the market demand for new economic models for premium content across the entertainment and media marketplace. This is achieved by investing and partnering with the world's leading talent, producers and distributors to fund, develop, produce and distribute premium content to help drive and support editorially and commercially vibrant, premium content networks & platforms for the global benefit of our content partners and advertisers. Headquartered in London and Los Angeles, the business currently operates in 26 countries worldwide with Motion's broad range of award winning programming distributed globally. Motion Content Group is part of GroupM, the world's leading full-service media investment management operation, a WPP company.

ABOUT MTV:

MTV is a global youth culture brand inspired by music. MTV is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA).