Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

The CW plots MadTV revival, with original cast members hosting

If you’re a fan of former sketch comedy show MADtv, get ready for some nostalgia as the program will be coming to the CW for a limited-run event.

The Warner Bros.-owned network will air eight, one-hour episodes featuring a new cast, with each hosted by a former cast member. Which cast members will host has not yet been revealed, but the eight episodes should allow for each of the fan favorites to make a return.

Recommended Videos

Running for 14 seasons on Fox, from 1995-2009, MADtv was inspired by Mad Magazine, and served as a sort of mix between Saturday Night Live and In Living Color. It offered up hilarious recurring skits that targeted celebrities and popular culture. The show also spawned some seriously humorous characters of its own, like Michael McDonald’s creepy manchild Stuart, Alex Bornstein’s Ms. Swan, and Keegan-Michael Key’s limber and spastic Coach Hines. The show was performed in front of a live studio audience.

MadTV helped catapult the careers of several comedians, including Key who, along with former cast member Jordan Peele, went on to create the highly-successful sketch comedy show Key & Peele. Ike Barinholtz, cast member from 2002-2007, was most recently seen in the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters and Hulu’s (formerly Fox’s) The Mindy Project. Appearing on 127 episodes of the show from 1997-2009, Alex Borstein went on to voice the character of Lois Griffin on Family Guy for the past 17 years.

Related: Thousands of movies and TV shows on Amazon Video. Try it free for 30-days.

In January, the CW aired a one-hour special to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the show, with several original cast members returning, including McDonald and Borstein, as well as Mo Collins.

Fans can see all 14 seasons of the show on The CW’s digital network, CW Seed. The network appears to be making a serious play into sketch comedy, having also revived Whose Line Is It Anyway? back in 2013. MADtv is produced by Telepictures, which is owned by Warner Bros. David E. Salzman, who served as executive producer of the original series, will again serve as executive producer and showrunner for the revival.

There’s no word yet on when exactly the eight episodes will air, nor whether The CW intends to bring the show back beyond the eight. For now, here’s hoping that the original cast members who appear to host will resurrect some of those iconic characters we’ve been missing for the past nine years since MADtv went off the air.

Christine Persaud
Christine has decades of experience in trade and consumer journalism. While she started her career writing exclusively about…
How to Train Your Dragon review: a thrilling, beautiful fantasy adventure
How to Train Your Dragon review: a thrilling, beautiful fantasy adventure that sticks true to its animated roots
Hiccup holding his hand out to Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon (2025)

DreamWorks and Universal Pictures successfully revived an instant fantasy classic with How to Train Your Dragon. This live-action remake of the 2010 animated film follows Hiccup (now played by Mason Thames) as he defies his Viking brethren and befriends the Night Fury Toothless, defying centuries of Viking traditions and revealing the true nature of dragons and their war with humans.

How to Train Your Dragon had to meet high expectations as a remake of one of DreamWorks' most popular films. However, given that the animated film's co-director, Dean DeBlois, also helmed this remake, it's no surprise that How to Train Your Dragon remained true to what made the original movie so beloved. As a result, the movie presents a faithful reimagining of the original animated story, all while delivering outstanding performances and realistic fantasy visuals.

Read more
Like Materialists? Watch these 5 rom-coms now
Pedro Pascal and Dakota Johnson in Materialists

The romantic comedy is not the dominant box office genre that it once was, but every once in a while, we still get something that fits that mode. Materialists isn't a rom-com, exactly, but it definitely alludes to a lot of the pillars of the genre.

Given the ways Materialists alludes to and plays with the formula of a romantic comedy, we found other movies that fit a similar mold that you can watch now. They might not be straightforward romantic comedies, but sometimes, that's better.

Read more
3 underrated shows on Netflix you need to watch in June 2025
Four men stand next to each other in front of a pool.

One of Netflix's biggest shows calls it quits at the end of the month. Squid Game wraps up its historic Netflix run with the third and final season. Can Gi-hun defeat the Front Man and shut down the games for good?

Other popular shows this month include Ginny & Georgia season 3 and Tires. Beyond the popular shows, Netflix has an entire world of underrated shows. Keep reading, and you’ll find three good recommendations below.

Read more