EXCLUSIVE: Comedy Central, long one of stand-up’s most important institutional launchpads, is returning to talent incubation with the launch of Comedy Central Stand-Up Selects, a new series of short sets from 14 comics that will tape in August and launch exclusively on the Comedy Central Stand-Up YouTube channel this fall.

Following up Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring, the digital short-form series that kicked off in the 2010s, Comedy Central Stand-Up Selects‘ inaugural edition will feature stand-up from both newer and more established talent: Adam Ray, Daniela Inés Calvo, Fumi Abe, Ian Edwards, Jay Jurden, Jeremiah Watkins, Jessie “Jetski” Johnson, Joey Cerone, Katherine Blanford, Leslie Liao, Mandal, Ryan Goodcase, Sammy Mowrey, and Skyler Higley.

The series is being produced in partnership with Hoff Studios. Tickets to tapings can be secured here.

Building on Comedy Central’s legacy of championing emerging comedians, while reestablishing the brand as a producer in the digital space, Stand-Up Selects is the latest in a long line of stand-up showcase formats from Comedy Central, which has been more or less dormant as a champion of new stand-up for some time, as live stand-up comedy company Don’t Tell Comedy has taken over the emerging stand-up scene.

Comedy Central became one of TV’s most reliable stand-up farm systems beginning in the 1990s, implementing a mix of showcases, half-hours, roasts, late-night blocks and festival tie-ins to elevate the medium. In the process, they helped launch or accelerate the careers of everyone from Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer to Kevin Hart, Ali Wong, Hannibal Buress and many others.

Comedy Central gave a vast generation of rising headliners their first half-hour televised solo special with formats like Comedy Central Presents before transitioning to the likes of Stand-Up Featuring, which featured tighter sets from emerging and mid-career comics, built for the internet age. Generating over 143M views to date across social platforms, Stand-Up Selects‘ predecessor, Stand-Up Featuring, showcased more than 200 comics, providing them with a nice calling card and career stepping stone that is more difficult to come by these days.

While Comedy Central has been missed in the last decade so as a go-to destination for new stand-up — with the rise of Netflix and YouTube specials and the proliferation of unrelated comedic social media content — what the Stand-Up Selects launch represents for Comedy Central as a whole, post-Paramount/Skydance merger, is not yet clear.

Allison Berg’s queer-tastic new documentary, “Time Warp,” boasts an impressive pedigree of executive producers: Josh Gad, Billy Porter, and John Cameron Mitchell among them. They’ve likely all at one point touched the cultural third rail that is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the exuberantly, unapologetically queer even before we had the words to say it rock-opera musical in which so many film fans and LGBTQ audiences have seen their authentic selves. Or at least the versions they can’t put to words when they’re living in, say, Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Enter the Starling Company, led by charismatic nonbinary drag performer Kenny Starling, to bring Jim Sharman’s film and Richard O’Brien’s source-material musical flagrantly, brazenly back into the local consciousness. In Berg’s earnestly told, sprawlingly ensembled documentary, Starling’s troupe of queer and straight folks of all ages mount an inaugural local production in 2022, with a diverse cast of characters worthy of the humor and heart of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. While this Tribeca Festival premiere — which has gone on to play numerous queer film festivals from Frameline to Outfest — runs a bit long and feels narratively rangy, it’s worth celebrating for how joyfully those involved express themselves. Especially the youngsters.

“Queer joy,” as Starling points out, isn’t all rainbows: It comes from an often terrorized, even animal state when sexuality is stifled by policy. Wyoming, as “Time Warp” underlines, unfortunately hosts an alarming suicide rate, especially among young people. And it isn’t hard to guess why. Rock Springs, meanwhile, isn’t far from Laramie, where Matthew Shepard became the casualty of a hate crime in 1998, and the poster boy for a movement that, in the grand scheme, is still only finding its footing.

The South Carolina-born Starling is mounting a local-theater production of “Rocky Horror” with a troupe of thespians — several of the youngest whose parents don’t know their involvement — at the 350-seat Broadway Theater. Starling details their own struggles with identity, pitching them more broadly to an alternately curious and wary city council that is attempting censorship on the project, which will put the drag-forward aesthetic of “Rocky Horror” front and center for a community not exactly accustomed to such gender-bending forms of political expression. They’re up against the likes of a Trump-supporting veteran staging a “First Amendment” protest outside the theater, who is nonplussed as to what to say about the suicide rates in Wyoming.

Some are more comfortable than others with staging the show, like high schoolers Bones and Megan, best friends who have grounded heads on their shoulders about how they’ve been ostracized by their broader communities. Other members of the cast are older, and have a more generational tie to what “Rocky Horror” means in queer culture — and why it’s still on drag stages and in repertory theaters to this day. But what’s most heartening is how “Time Warp” shows the locals rallying around the production, including at a drag-centric promotional performance near a casino in which Starling takes the stage in all their powdered- and glammed-up glory.

Berg previously shined a light on a queer emblem in her documentary “The Dog” about John Wojtowicz, the man who inspired “Dog Day Afternoon” (and most recently a Broadway show), and who robbed a Brooklyn bank to try and pay for his partner’s gender confirmation surgery. “Time Warp” carries an even more timely political message about discrimination, especially in light of right-wing movements that oppose the freedom of existence of queer people like the ones in this film.

At nearly 100 minutes, “Time Warp” could’ve used more editorial discipline, as the actors and their plights get lost in a shuffle of an ensemble. I suspect that running time had to do with not wanting to part ways with meaningful footage of the subjects, who all deserve a piece of the story. The footage of the actual inaugural “Rocky Horror” performance buckles a bit under draggy asides. But for those keen on hope in times like these, “Time Warp” is a vital story told with warmth and wit, with subjects who likely didn’t need a camera to turn on their charisma.

Grade: B

“Time Warp” premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival before playing Frameline and Outfest. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO has ordered The Trial of Louise Woodward, a five-episode limited series based on a true story, starring two-time Emmy nominee Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus).

Created by Matthew Barry (Industry), who is also showrunner, writer and exec producer, The Trial of Louise Woodward tells the shocking true story of how, in 1997, an 18-year-old British au pair was accused of shaking to death a baby left in her care by her American host family, setting off an international media firestorm as the trial unfolds in full view of both the British and American public.

The project brings Fahy and Barry back to HBO following their work on The White Lotus and Industry, respectively. It also marks a reunion for Fahy and Susanne Bier, who exec produces and directs all episodes, on the heels of the Netflix mystery thriller The Perfect Couple.

Barry told us, “The trial of Louise Woodward raised profound questions about childcare, working mothers, class, and the role of an emerging 24/7 media. Thirty years later, those questions feel more urgent and relevant than ever. I’m grateful to be working with Susanne and our partners at HBO to bring this story, in all its complexity, to the screen.”

Exec producers on The Trial of Louise Woodward, in addition to Barry, include Big Light Productions founder Frank Spotnitz, Emily Feller, Tobi de Graaff, and Antoine Douaihy. Production kicks off in August for an expected 2027 release.

Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Matthew Barry and Susanne Bier on this new series and to welcome Meghann Fahy back to the HBO family. Matthew’s compassionate approach to this gripping true story, paired with Susanne’s powerfully distinct directorial vision and Meghann’s exceptional talent, has brought together an extraordinary creative team whose work we’re excited to share with our audience soon.”

Most recently seen starring in Netflix’s Sirens, opposite Julianne Moore, and the Universal thriller Drop, Fahy’s upcoming slate includes limited series The Good Daughter, an adaptation of the Karin Slaughter bestseller for Peacock, where she stars opposite Rose Byrne. Additionally, there’s the Amazon MGM romance You Deserve Each Other, based on the novel from Sarah Hogle, where she stars opposite Penn Badgley. She is represented by WME, Anonymous Content, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Barry is a writer-producer whose credits include Industry, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and EastEnders, to name a few. He is repped by The Agency and WME.

In television, Bier has most recently worked on The Perfect Couple, as well as The First Lady for Showtime and The Undoing for HBO. More recently, she directed Practical Magic 2, starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, which Warner Bros. releases September 11. She is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Jackoway Austin Tyerman.