Pickleball goes primetime Nov. 17 when Late Show star Stephen Colbert hosts a "hilarious and cutthroat pickleball competition" in a two-hour CBS special.
Competing in the Pickled comedy special will be Dierks Bentley, Will Ferrell, Jimmie Allen, Emma Watson, Kelly Rowland, Daniel Dae Kim, June Diane Raphael, Sugar Ray Leonard, Max Greenfield, Luis Guzman, Phil Keoghan, Tig Notaro, Paul Scheer, Aisha Tyler and Jaime Camil.
They will volley for the coveted Colbert Cup while raising funds for Comic Relief’s programs to battle "homelessness, rootlessness and lack of safety often experienced by children and families living in poverty," according to the CBS media announcement Wednesday.
"Along with Stephen Colbert, CBS and our celebrity players, we all came together for two great causes: to support Comic Relief US and to add more articles about pickleball to everyone’s newsfeed,” said Mike Farah, CEO of Funny Or Die, in the release. Colbert, Funny Or Die and CBS Studios are producing the special.
The Pickled broadcasters will include former ESPN SportsCenter and Tennis Channel reporter Cari Champion, actor-comedian John Michael Higgins and longtime CBS basketball analyst Bill Raftery. Claussen Pickles will sponsor the The Claussen Crunch Time-Halftime Show.
Kenny Loggins and Colbert will perform the national anthem before the match.
Pickled will air 9-11 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, and stream live and on demand on Paramount+. In addition to appeals to support Comic Relief, there will be an effort to encourage pickleball players and leagues to help homeless families and children, CBS says.
Colbert is producing the show through his Spartina production company, which also makes Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News for Comedy Central.
Funny Or Die,the comedy studio co-founded by Ferrell, produced Weird: The Al Yankovic Story starring Daniel Radcliffe, Hank Azaria’s Brockmire and Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns.
