OnionSportsNetwork

Comedy Central and The Onion are teaming up to produce a new comedy series about sports. Well, not so much series ... more like a parody of ESPN. The show will be called the 'Onion Sports Network' and Comedy Central has ordered ten episodes. This should not be confused with the Onion News Network.

I can't recall anybody doing a half-hour comedy news program focusing on sports. 'The Daily Show' pretty much has cornered the parody news and politics market (although the same could be argued about the 'Weekend Update' segment on 'Saturday Night Live'). The concept has potential. There are many sports fans that love comedy and vice-versa. There is also already a built-in audience from using The Onion's brand.

Other attempts have been made at genre news parody with the only stand-out being 'The Colbert Report' parodying opinion-style news. 'Chocolate News' didn't last long and don't get me started on 'The Half Hour News Hour.' Hopefully this show will have a longer run.

Part of me is surprised that this deal took this long to happen. But when you watch the recent crop of new shows on the Chortle Network (with the exception of Tosh.0), it really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Comedy Central has ordered a half-hour scripted pilot based on the Onion's Sports Network. The OSN is part of the popular satirical magazine's online TV news network that launched a little under a year ago.

This isn't the first time the network has tried to do a satirical sports show. Comedy Central also shot a pilot for a Daily Show-esque sports show called Sports Central that died in the pilot stage. This incarnation sounds much more promising since it will spoof not only sports figures and stories, but also the tone and style of sports media. Sweet sassy molassey, this is gonna rock!