Actor and comedian Ken Jeong, who is currently a judge on Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” is developing a talk show with an eye toward a 2024 launch, according to media reports on Friday.
He taped a test show in New York on Friday, Deadline reported. That’s not a SAG strike violation as talk show hosts are under a different contract and no longer a WGA red flag — as it was for Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher — as writers have gone back to work after successfully negotiating a new contract with the AMPTP.
Jim Biederman of “The Kids in the Hall” will serve as showrunner, writer and director. He’ll also executive produce alongside Jeong for Debmar-Mercury, the company behind “The Wendy Williams Show” and “The Nick Cannon Show.”
Prior to joining “The Masked Singer,” Jeong starred in the ABC sitcom “Dr. Ken.” He also played Ben Chang on NBC’s “Community” and Feng in the Apple TV+ series “The Afterparty.”
Jeong’s film credits include playing Leslie Chow in “The Hangover” films, as well as Charlie Day’s “Fool’s Paradise” and the animated films “Over the Moon” and “Scoob!”
Before turning to acting, he was a practicing doctor. He had had small roles in “Knocked Up” and “Role Models,” but his breakout was with the first “Hangover” movie in 2009.
In 2019, his first stand-up comedy special, “Ken Jeong: You Complete Me, Ho,” was released on Netflix.
Jeong’s fellow judges on “The Masked Singer” Season 9 were Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger. In April 2022, he made headlines for walking off the set of the Fox singing competition when the masked performer was revealed to be former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
When Giuliani began his swan song, a short reprise of “Bad to the Bone,” Jeong could be seen saying “I’m done,” and calmly walked off stage. The move drew both praise and criticism, with one Twitter user posting at the time, “Basically Ken Jeong has higher standards than much of the US political and legal system.”
Leave a Reply