Comedian Michael Ian Black has been set as the moderator for NBC comedy streaming service Seeso’s new series Debate Wars, The A.V. Club reports.
The half-hour series will feature spirited debates from two separate teams of comedians which will include Janeane Garofalo, Eugene Mirman, Gilbert Gottfried, Judah Friedlander, Aparna Nancherla, Todd Barry, Jo Firestone, Connor Ratliff, Guy Branum, Phoebe Robinson and Dave Hill.
It is not clear which topics the debates will focus on, with the only information given being that they are “the greatest arguments of all time”. It seems likely that the comics will debate sillier topics like ‘cats or dogs’, rather than taking a page from something like Comedy Central’s Crossballs which featured debates on issues like gun control and violence in the media.
“I look forward to moderating spirited debates on all manner of inconsequential subjects that are, nonetheless, of grave national importance,” said Michael Ian Black. “Hopefully our debaters will conduct themselves with exactly the same level of maturity as our presidential candidates.”
Black may be most well known for being a part of sketch-comedy group The State and for making out with Bradley Cooper in Wet Hot American Summer, but he has had a lot going on in his career recently. He is a regular on the Comedy Central series Another Period, he has a new stand-up special on EPIX called Michael Ian Black: Noted Expert and has a pseudo-children’s book coming out July 5th titled A Child’s First Book of Trump.
Michael Ian Black will not be alone on Debate Wars, as he will have color commentary support from comedians Brandon Scott Jones and Morgan Grace Jarrett. The series will be run by Brian McCann (Late Night With Conan O’Brien) and executive produced by Dan Pasternack (The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Portlandia).