'Everybody Hates Chris' Revived: Chris Rock's Sitcom Returning in Unexpected Fashion
Chris Rock is reviving his beloved auto-biographical sitcom Everybody Hates Chris but in a very surprising way. The new show, Everybody Still Hates Chris, will be animated for MTV Entertainment Studios, which handed the show a straight-to-series order. The series will air on Comedy Central and Paramount+, which are both under the Paramount corporate umbrella.
Rock is returning as narrator and executive producer reports Deadline. The show will be inspired by his teenage years, just as the original Everybody Hates Chris was. CBS Studios and 3 Arts Entertainment will produce with MTV Entertainment. 3 Arts produced the original series, which aired on UPN and The CW from 2005 to 2009. All four seasons are available to stream on Paramount+.
Sanjay Shah (South Park) is the showrunner of Everybody Still Hates Chris and wrote the pilot. Ali LeRoi, who created the original show with Rock is an executive producer with Rock and 3Arts' Michael Rotenberg and Dave Becky. MTV Entertainment Studios' Adult Animation chef Grant Gish is also an executive producer.
"A reimagining of this groundbreaking, critically acclaimed series has been a source of creative discussions at our Studio for a long time," George Cheeks, president, and CEO of CBS said in a statement. "It's exciting to join forces with 3 Arts and the comedic genius of Chris Rock as he expands on his vision of the original show in this innovative new format. This also marks another significant in-house collaboration for CBS with Chris McCarthy and our valued partners at MTV Entertainment Studios as we jointly support this marquee series for Paramount+ and Comedy Central."
Everybody Hates Chris was inspired by Rock's experiences in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn during the late 1980s. Tyler James Williams, who would later become a star on The Walking Dead and just earned an Emmy nomination for Abbott Elementary, played the fictionalized Chris. Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold played Chris' parents, while Tequan Richmond and Imani Hakim played his siblings. Vincent Martella played Chris' best friend Greg. Although the show earned critical acclaim, it picked up just three Emmy nominations during its run. Everybody Loves Chris also won the Oustanding Comedy Series award three times at the NAACP Image Awards.
Rock has been in the news ever since Will Smith slapped him at the Oscars, completely overshadowing everything else about the ceremony in March. Last week, Smith broke his long silence on the subject with an apology video, revealing that he reached out to Rock recently. During his July 29 stand-up show in Atlanta, Rock joked about the slap again. He has only made subtle references to the slap during his tour.
"Everybody is trying to be a f—ing victim. If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims," Rock said, reports CNN. "Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids." The comedian later added, "Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face."