Kent Alterman Departs Comedy Central Leaving Behind Complicated Animation Legacy

When it comes to shepherding this generation’s comedy elite, Kent Alterman knowns no equal. Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, Ilana Glazer, Nikki Glazer, Anthony Jezelnik, Abbi Jacobson, Trevor Noah, the list goes on and on. But, when it comes to original adult animation, the now departing Kent Alterman leaves Comedy Central (with Chris McCarthy in his stead) with a stain on his resume of not being able to successfully get that second adult animated series to quite go opposite of South Park. 

Granted, producing an animated series that will have any sort of comparison to the god of adult animation, South Park, is a tall task. The long-running animated series is in it’s 23rd season and just completed a SECOND streaming deal for a half a billion dollars mere years after doing the same with Hulu. That doesn’t mean Kent hasn’t had strong IP to work from nor even had good shots with original series, but he just didn’t have the patience to allow original animated series to build their audience.

Brickleberry will go down as Kent’s most successful try. After three seasons, the Waco O’Guin/Roger Black join was canceled in 2015 letting two talented producers walk down to Netflix to produce 30 episodes of Paradise PD. Next, Legends of Chamberlain Heights got a two-season order that absolutely served a different audience, but a clear sign of not knowing what they had reared it’s head when the network decided to post the second season opposite the third season of Rick and Morty, an obvious decimation in the ratings followed. We even got a revival of Futurama which helped pave the way for one of the best animated series finales of all time and helped reinvigorate a franchise that still gets talked about to this day. Lest we forget all of the one-and-dones that were strong but didn’t last, Jeff & Some Aliens, The Gorburger Show, and a slew of pod deals that went nowhere and you would be hard-pressed to see Alterman’s understanding on how an animated series gets an audience in the new millennia.

Not to mention, it isn’t like Viacom doesn’t have a slew of IP to already draw from that Comedy Central could’ve used to keep South Park’s spot warm until the following season. Daria, Beavis and Butthead, the aforementioned Futurama, the network had a treasure-trove of originals in which they could’ve pulled from the Viacom vault. Order ten episodes a piece, add South Park, and you’ll never lose a ratings battle at 10 pm ET on Wednesdays ever again.

Unfortunately, none of that happened. Will MTV/VH1 chief Chris McCarthy be able to come in and order original animation that actually gets a chance to show it’s stuff? MTV, once a vaunted juggernaut for original adult animation, hasn’t shown any of these signs in recent years. All we can do is wait and see if this ship can be righted.