Nerdist Industries, the quickly growing online empire devoted to all things geeky with an emphasis on comedy, unveiled a roster of two dozen new shows that will launch on its YouTube channel starting in April. Nerdist founder and stand-up comedian Chris Hardwick announced the upcoming lineup of dozens of shows at Wondercon 2012 on Friday, and again in the above video, where he addresses a press corps made up of of puppets.
While some of the programming is based on already-existing Nerdist properties, most of it has been specifically conceived for the Nerdist YouTube channel. For instance, "Face to Face with 'Weird Al' Yankovic" brings in the beloved song parodist (and frequent Nerdist guest and contributor) to interview celebrities, and "Ain't it Cool News with Harry Knowles" will adapt the infamous film gossip site to a filmed talk show. Hardwick will also host "Chris Hardwick’s All Star Bowling," a bowling competition/comedy show with a nod to Hardwick's father, champion bowler Billy Hardwick. Nerdist will also stream episodes of the legendary sketch show "Kids in the Hall," with new interviews and segments hosted by Hardwick.
The YouTube channel will also incorporate adaptations of Nerdist podcasts, and plenty of wild cards, most notably: "Neil Patrick Harris’ Puppetopia," "Gif Gif City," "Cute Things Exploding," "Weird Shit From Japan," "Untitled Rob Zombie Project" and "Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson," a video version of the podcast hosted by the famed astrophysicist.
Hardwick has been a vocal proponent and influencer of the changing media landscape. Originally a TV host and stand-up comedian, Hardwick's career shifted gears when founding Nerdist, which grew from a blog, to a podcast, to a collection of podcasts, to a full-fledged, multi-media network. In fact, when HuffPost Comedy interviewed Hardwick at South By Southwest in 2011, he spoke on the idea that media is evolving in such a way that he found it inevitable that all television programming would be on demand for consumers rather than following a traditional broadcast model. A year later, Hardwick appears to have decided to forge his own trail in that area.
The video of Hardwick speaking to puppet reporters goes in more depth explaining the new shows, into microphones for Nerdist, YouTube and UHF (Weird Al's TV station from his 1989 movie). The full listing of Nerdist channel programming can be found here.