Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a talk with journalists in Kyiv, Ukraine on Oct. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Countries are snapping up the rights to “Servant of the People” — a comedy series starring the Ukrainian President, as the Ukrainian President.
Back in 2015, former actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy played Vasiliy Petrovich Goloborodko, a high school teacher propelled to the presidency after a student’s video of him denouncing official corruption in Ukraine goes viral.
Goloborodko sets about running the country while eschewing the perks of being leader by keeping hold of his normal life.
A hit in Ukraine, where it ran for three seasons and a spin-off movie, interest in the show has peaked since Zelenskyy became the face of the nation as it endures attacks from Russia.
Eccho Rights has distributed the program, made by Zelenskyy’s Studio Kvartel 95, since it launched. The company’s managing partner, Nicola Söderlund, said sales have increased dramatically in the last few days, calling interest in the program “remarkable.”
“It’s quite an old show already,” he explains. “But, of course, given the circumstances, it’s become very, very, very interesting for everybody.”
Channel 4 has announced it has the rights to “Servant of the People” in the U.K. and plans to broadcast an episode on Sunday, alongside a current affairs show about Zelenskyy. Eccho Rights also reported deals with MBC in the Middle East, Greece’s ANT 1 and PRO TV in Romania, as well as broadcasters in Bulgaria, Moldova, Estonia, France, Finland and Georgia.
“People get surprised that a comedian can be a politician, but he was,” says Söderlund. “His skills in getting compelling messages to the people, which is what to do if you’re a TV host, has helped him a lot becoming a politician.”
Eccho Rights has donated 50,000 Euros to the Ukrainian Red Cross, which Söderlund says should offset the money they’ve made from selling the show. The company has also removed any Russian or Russian produced TV shows from its catalog.
Söderlund met Zelenskyy in 2012 when they distributed one of his comedy shows called “Crack Them Up,” where ordinary people have to make comedians laugh. The premise of “Servant of the People” appealed to him right away.
Zelenskyy mined the humor of an ordinary man in a corrupt society riding his bike to the presidential palace, forgoing a pay raise and living at home with his mom. “That was kind of the idea,” Söderlund said, "and I loved it.”
“Servant of the People” won the best feature series award at the Teletriumph Awards in Ukraine and also the Gold Remi Award for Television Comedy at the 2016 WorldFest in Houston.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress today, enough of changing our clocks for Daylight Savings, and the Eiffel Tower gets a few feet taller. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Food technology startup Tender Food raised $12 million in a seed round led by Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital. Tender says it specializes in creating alternative meats with an authentic texture and is on a mission to make alternative meats so delicious, nutritious, and affordable, that eating meat from animals will no longer make sense. Christophe Chantre, co-founder & CEO of Tender Food, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
With the number of Ukrainians being displaced due to the Russian invasion surging, two students from Harvard took it on themselves to develop a website to help connect potential hosts with refugees seeking housing. The co-founder of the website Ukraine Takes Shelter, Marco Burstein, joined Cheddar news to discuss working together with fellow freshman Avi Schiffmann to streamline the effort to aid Ukrainian refugees. "We basically worked for three days straight developing the website, and since then the response has been pretty incredible," Burstein said.
Over three weeks ago, WNBA player Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia on drug charges. According to reports, the Star arrived at an airport near Moscow where authorities found Vape cartridges and hashish oil in her luggage. Grindr faces serious charges that could carry a possible sentence of 5-10 years in a Russian prison. Experts warn that Griner's arrest could be used as a bargaining chip. Partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Thomas Firestone, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Image-sharing social media platform Pinterest is marking Women's History Month through its Pinterest Elevates program, designed to help grow 10 underrepresented businesses with monetary and strategic support. Alise Marshall, senior global lead for public affairs at Pinterest, joined Cheddar News to explain how the program is helping to uplift women and women of color with businesses of their own. “This was in response to issues that we saw happening in the community, and ways that we thought that we were uniquely positioned to respond," she said.
A new report from the Motion Picture Association highlights how the popularity of streaming services has helped the film industry recover from the pandemic. Matthew Belloni, the host of "The Town" podcast and founding partner of Puck News, joined Cheddar News to discuss the impact of streaming on Hollywood. "For all but the largest tent-pole style blockbuster movies, the future probably is streaming," he said.
In the new comedic film "Linoleum," an Ohio family faces the adventure of a lifetime after a mysterious satellite lands in their yard. The suburban dad, played by comic Jim Gaffigan, takes the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut by re-building the machine as his very own rocket ship. Gaffigan and co-star Rhea Seehorn joined Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo at South by Southwest 2022, to chat about the science fiction roles, with the actors noting that they didn't quite understand the jargon. "Jim and I had some late night googling sessions of what we were saying in the, in the scenes, but it was fun," Seehorn said.
The pandemic has turned the world of dating upside down. So what's making daters smile, and what are they looking for in a partner? Cheddar breaks down the findings from eharmony's 2022 Happiness Index study that break down the current state of dating.
Anna Sorokin, the convicted swindler who claimed to be a German heiress to finance a posh lifestyle in New York, is making a new bid to fight deportation, a lawyer said Tuesday.
