HBO is launching a new TV newsmagazine series with VICE. VICE founder Shane Smith will host the program, which will be executive produced by Smith, comedian Bill Maher and VICE chief creative officer Eddy Moretti. CNN host Fareed Zakariawill serve as a consultant on the series, per his overall agreement with Time Warner signed in 2010. CNN is a sister network to HBO.
Potential subjects for the new series include “Taliban child suicide bombers; North Korean slave labor camps; New York’s underground voodoo heroin clinics; Somalian pirates; and Satanic dentists in the Pacific Northwest,” the network says. Some of the segments will likely be repurposed video content from Vice.com, like this segment on North Korean labor camps:
There is no premiere date or timeslot for the series, which will be called “VICE,” though HBO says it will be televised weekly. That said, TVNewser hears that it will likely debut as a lead-in or lead-out to “Real Time with Bill Maher,” which airs Friday nights on HBO.
“VICE has emerged as a premier new media brand through a savvy combination of irreverence, smarts and fearlessness,” said HBO’s president of programming Michael Lombardo in a statement. “We are excited to offer a forum for their groundbreaking style of news coverage and look forward to a show that’s like nothing else on TV.”