Onion News Network is a parody television news show produced by The Onion that originated as a YouTube video series in and was further developed into a 22 minute television program in , with two seasons of ten episodes aired on IFC.
In March , The Onion launched The Onion News Network , a daily web video broadcast that had been in production since mid under the direction of executive producer Scott Dikkers , the Onion's then editor-in-chief, with co-executive producer Will Graham. For Season 1, the series was the only scripted live-action comedy series in the US to employ non-union writers. However, the writers unionized between Seasons 1 and 2 in the midst of a strike threat.
It was not successfully picked up for a full series. Oberg was the only actor to appear on two different television shows produced by The Onion. Rachel Maddow and Mike Huckabee appeared as themselves in the fourth episode. Beck stated that while auditioning for the part of anchor of FactZone , he implied that Alvarez cut his brake lines and his car ended up in a ditch.
To further invoke the atmosphere of a hour network, The Onion produces the following video series:. It was announced on March 22, , that IFC had picked up the show for a second season due to premiere on October 4, Onion News Network received generally positive reviews from television critics. Stewart 's Daily Show is the advance-level class, Onion News Network is graduate school, requiring much quicker thinking and a greater tolerance for comfort-zone invasion". Zoe Williams of The Guardian gave a mixed review of the first episode, stating that, "even by the opening credits I was smiling so much I had a sore face".
However, she was critical of the content. Williams criticized a sketch relating to racism in the US judicial system, saying: "This is the kind of thing Jon Stewart could say with one eyebrow or the judicious rolling back of his wheelie presenter's chair.
