Between voicing the titular hero in the Captain Underpants movie, cameoing in the TBS comedy series Angie Tribeca, and filming Father Figures with Owen Wilson and quite the ensemble cast, Ed Helms has been pretty busy this year. Despite this packed schedule, however, most of the former The Daily Show correspondent’s recent work has been either minor or hidden behind the wonders of voice recordings and CGI. That’s all about to change in December when Helms returns to his Comedy Central roots with a new one-off special.
In The Fake News with Ted Nelms, a one-hour program set to premiere Wednesday, December 13th at 10pm ET/PT, Helms will channel his salad days from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in what Comedy Central is calling “a hilarious satirical news special centered around fake news and the current political climate.” The one-off show will mirror a single hour of cable news television — be it CNN, Fox News or MSNBC — and center on Helms’s titular character, the anchor Ted Nelms. In a statement, the 43-year-old actor said The Fake News would essentially do what the actual newsmakers are doing, but with jokes:
“[I’m so] thrilled to be returning to Comedy Central after all these years for my new special The Fake News with Ted Nelms. Obviously there are lot of news organizations out there just making up a bunch of crap and calling it news. But unlike those others, we’re doing it better, faker, and stupider. And we’re joking.”
As much fun as Helms’s Fake News special sounds, it will have to contend with an already crowded room of similarly satiric comedy programs designed around the 24-hour news cycle. Comedy Central alone currently runs Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show, former correspondent Jordan Klepper’s The Opposition, and Donald Trump impressionist Anthony Atamanuik‘s brilliant The President Show. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers have transformed their otherwise general late night programs into political and comedic powerhouses this past year. Will Ed Helms Ted Nelms be able to compete?
