Narrative comedy a challenge to cable

LOS ANGELES, June 21 (UPI) -- Cable stations are piling on half-hour, live-action comedy shows despite their dismal success rate, the Hollywood Reporter said.

"We're not giving up on this format, we've got to give it a shot," said Lauren Corrao, executive vice president of Comedy Central's original programming, who says an audience's relationship with the characters is key to long-term loyalty.

Narrative comedy rarely draws more than 1 million viewers, while dramas like the record-breaking TNT "The Closer" achieved 8.2 million last week.

"Entourage," a Home Box Office series that drew 2.7 million viewers last week, seems to be the exception.

Cable marketing strategy theorizes a hit original series is fundamental to establishing a channel's brand identity, for example "The Sopranos" at HBO, "The Shield" at FX and "Monk" at USA. As far as unscripted material, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" helped establish Bravo and "Dog the Bounty Hunter" boosted A&E.

But John Landgraf, president and general manager at FX, says he thinks the market for comedy is ripe.

"Any time a genre is dead, that means the genre that is alive -- drama -- is getting more and more oversaturated every year," Landgraf told the Reporter.