Ken Jeong, judge on Fox’s The Masked Singer and host and executive producer of Fox’s I Can See Your Voice, is in development on a daytime talk show with Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury, the company confirmed Friday.
The show, which shot a test episode on Friday in New York, is being developed for a national launch in broadcast syndication in fall 2024. Friday’s production took place under the SAG Network Code, which allows SAG-AFTRA guild members to work on certain types of shows, including unscripted daytime talk shows.
“Ken is one of a handful of people in the world who has what it takes to succeed as a talk show host and we are excited to be in business with him,” Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein said in a statement. “Audiences connect with Ken on many levels — not only because he is so talented, entertaining and unapologetically hilarious but [also because of] their sense that he is sincere, compassionate, fearless, friendly, just genuinely nice — all essential ingredients that make for long-term success as a talk-show host. He is also a talent capable of conquering any time period with his mix of comedy, Hollywood celebrity friends and ability to bring viewers.”
Debmar-Mercury currently produces and distributes Sherri, starring Sherri Shepherd, and before that, produced and distributed The Wendy Williams Show. Sherri is currently the only daytime talk show with comedy as a main focus, and NBCUniversal’s Karamo is the only first-run talker original production that stars a man. Jeong would be the first Asian-American man to star in his own daytime talk show.
Besides The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice, Jeong also is known for his roles on the NBC sitcom Community and as the recurring nemesis in the Hangover movies. Jeong will executive produce the show with veteran comedy executive producer, showrunner, writer and director Jim Biederman (The Kids in the Hall, The Howard Stern Radio Show, The Tom Green Show).
Prior to The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice, Jeong executive produced, wrote and starred in ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, based on his own life as an OB-GYN prior to becoming an actor and a comedian. He also appears in Apple TV Plus’s The Afterparty and in the recently wrapped Amazon production, My Spy: The Eternal City, a sequel to the action comedy of the same name, among other things.
