Comedian W. Kamau Bell will star in a talk show produced by Chris Rock that will air on the cable channel FX, reports Laughspin. The weekly show, which currently is untitled, will air for six episodes starting in August, and will include social and political commentary from Bell as he "dissect[s] politics, pop culture, race, religion, the media and sex," according to FX.
In a statement, Bell told The Huffington Post: "Chris Rock is making a little boy's dreams come true."
The San Francisco-based Bell has been performing his widely acclaimed one-man show, "The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour," for several years. Last November, he shot a TV pilot based on it entitled "The Bell Curve: Apologies," and although the pilot did not get picked up, it marked the first time he worked with Rock, whose previous foray into late night TV on HBO was critically acclaimed.
Bell and Rock's show will also join Russell Brand's talk show "Strangely Uplifting" on FX, which also has a six-episode order and will premiere during the summer. It also will join a full roster of original comedies on FX made up of "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "The League," "Archer," "Louie," "Wilfred" and "Unsupervised."
Ever since FX has started producing more original shows, the News Corp-owned channel has intended to get into the late-night game. Before landing at TBS, Conan O'Brien was wooed by FX to bring his show to their channel after his "Tonight Show" collapsed on NBC.
Besides FX, at least two other cable channels will also launch late night talk shows this summer. June will see the premiere of IFC's "Comedy Bang! Bang!" with Scott Aukerman and Reggie Watts, as well as Adult Swim's "The Eric Andre Show," starring Andre and Hannibal Buress.