Tosh O Viewer Video List

Edit Story

Tosh.0's Daniel Tosh Pushes The Envelope... Further

This article is more than 10 years old.

Daniel Tosh's shtick is nothing new. It's just more popular than much of what came before it.

"The [clip show] format had been tried a couple dozen times and failed," the star of Comedy Central's Tosh.0 tells a roomful of reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour Wednesday. "Our idea [was] to push it as far as we can and see what happens."

To date, "pushing it" has worked for Tosh, 35, and his network bosses. In its second season, the viral video series, a contemporary cable spin on Bob Saget's America's Funniest Home Videos, drew nearly 3 million viewers per episode. (For those keeping track: a bigger audience than the network's other stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert regularly garner.) Many weeks, Tosh.0 was the most watched show among advertiser-beloved men both 18 to 24 and 18 to 34. The weekly series will return for a third season on Jan 11.

For Comedy Central, a network that has launched the careers of comedy giants like Steve Carell, Stewart and Colbert, Tosh's offerings are appealing for several reasons. In addition to drawing younger viewers and buzz to a medium that has struggled to lure either in recent years, his show can be made for a song. Like Comcast's Soup franchise, Tosh.0 features its host standing before a green screen playing a series of clips that are free to use through fair use laws. "If it looks cheap when you're watching it at home, know that it's cheaper," quips Tosh. (The network is tight-lipped about the show's actual price-tag.)

The bigger fight for a series like this comes with what can and cannot fly on ad-supported television. According to the show's funnyman host, Comedy Central's standards and practices division doesn't like "making fun of children, handicaps, and women getting hit." He later adds people being lit on fire to that list, but claims he's often surprised by what gets cut. "Lord knows what they're going to be offended by," he laughs, "it's never what we think it's going to be. Usually we just make it a lot worse and they're all like, 'Oh, that's better.'"

For his part, Tosh, too, is cashing in on the show's success, parlaying his prime-time popularity into a sold out 60-date tour that had him criss-crossing the country late last year. Looking to the future, he says he'd like to roll out more TV shows, be them on Comedy Central or elsewhere on the TV dial. What he's far less bullish on is pursuing an acting career as former clip show hosts like Talk Soup's Greg Kinnear have gone on to do. "I'm not a good actor," Tosh admits. "I can play myself, and a much gayer version of myself. That's about my range." And with that, the comic gets the kind of reaction he's come to expect.

Jan 12 Update: Tosh.0 returned for its third season on Tuesday, pulling in a series best 3.6 million viewers, which is up nearly 110% from its summer premiere.

Print
Reprints & Permissions