Cartoon Network Orders 'Annoying Orange' Comedy Series

"The Annoying Orange"

The Annoying Orangeis going from YouTube to Cartoon Network.

The cable network has picked up TV rights to the viral phenomenon created by Dane Boedigheimer and produced by The Collective.

The half-hour series, which Cartoon Network will premiere next year as part of its original programming block, an entertaining Orange that playfully heckles other fruits, vegetables and other nearby objects with puns and jokes.

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“The Annoying Orange and Cartoon Network were just meant to be squeezed together,” Cartoon Network chief content officer Rob Sorcher said in a statement announcing the news Thursday.

The Cartoon Network series will follow Orange and his band of buddies as they travel through time in a magical fruit cart. The TV series was developed and will be produced by The Collective, which also financed the pilot before shopping it to broadcasters. Boedigheimer co-created the TV series alongside Tom Sheppard (Pinky and the Brain). Conrad Vernon (Madagascar 3) will executive produce alongside The Collective's Gary Binkow and Dan Weinstein.

As of September, the series has notched more than 850 million total views on its dedicated YouTube channel with new episodes unspooling Fridays. Orange ranks as the ninth-most-subscribed YouTube channel of all time with more than 2 million subscribers and 10 million-plus fans on social media platforms.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit