UPN Teams with AntEye to Promote

UPN announced today that it has ordered 40 animated "shorts" designed and produced by AntEye.com (http://www.AntEye.com).

According to UPN Chief Operating Officer, Adam Ware, the pact calls for AntEye to produce a series of animated shorts titled "Let Me Holler @ Ya" for the Internet, starring D.L. Hughley of "The Hughleys" and the current box office release from MTV films "The Kings of Comedy."

Hughley's sitcom, "The Hughleys" is migrating over to UPN this season from the stiffer ABC. According to Paul McGuire of UPN, the show will be edgier on UPN, and he believes that the uncensored nature of the shorts will prepare the audience for the new attitude of the sitcom.

In order to encourage the spontaneous nature of Hughley's ranting shorts, the producers at AntEye bought him a mini-DAT player and instructed him to record whenever he was inspired. The team at AntEye then added animation to Hughley's material.

"Hughley was intrigued in teaming with AntEye because he is allowed to have a voice without the traditional censorship that can be limiting," said AntEye CEO Matti Leshem.

This is the first time that UPN has commissioned web shorts to promote one of its sitcoms, but the network is not ruling out shorts as a potential promotional tool in the future.

"We're going to see how this shakes out," stated McGuire.

The animated shorts are available for syndication and have been picked up by iFuse.com (http://www.ifuse.com) and TheSource.com (http://www.TheSource.com). The first three, including my favorite about the price of gas, can also be seen on AntEye.com.