Comedy Central to air first reality series

NEW YORK, July 3 (UPI) -- Comedy Central said it plans to start airing its first unscripted competition series this month with U.S. actor/comedian Michael Ian Black as its host.

Featuring comedian contestants Kyle Cease, Chris Fairbanks, Jeff Garcia, Red Grant, Tiffany Haddish, Bert Kreischer, Mo Mandel, Donnell Rawlings, Amy Schumer and Theo Von, "Reality Bites Back" is to premiere July 17 on Comedy Central.

The network said the series will show 10 comedians battling for supremacy "in weekly parodies of the most notorious reality shows around."

"The challenges may be absurd, but the game play is real and each week one unlucky comic will find him or herself booted off the program by our gleefully sadistic host, Michael Ian Black. The last one, er, 'standing' will be crowned Lord of All Reality and receive a $50,000 cash prize," Comedy Central said in a press release.

"It makes total sense that the way Comedy Central would choose to get into the reality game is by making fun of it. The nice surprise that came out of making the competition real is that viewers actually root for a winner," Comedy Central's Lauren Corrao said in a statement.

"I believe 'Reality Bites Back' will do for reality television shows what 'Alf' did for extraterrestrial puppet shows," Black added.