Is the longest-running TV Programm in Russia.
KVN games air on TV on Channel One, giving young people the opportunity to introduce themselves to the audience and shortly after to be able to become actors, scriptwriters, producers and so on. But to get to that top TV league every team has to crawl for 3-4 years through the lower leagues, constantly paying money for participation and comic material.
In 1997, Aleksandr Maslyakov, host of the show since 1964, decided to cash in big time on KVN. He registered AMiK, the company that since has a monopoly on all KVN content produced for television.
AMiK also runs all the official KVN leagues across Russia (by now, there are more than 70), with each KVN team competing in an official league paying for the right to participate. According to Forbes Russia (link in Russian), AMiK's total revenue equals more than $3 million a year.
AMiK also runs all the official KVN leagues across Russia (by now, there are more than 70), with each KVN team competing in an official league paying for the right to participate. According to Forbes Russia (link in Russian), AMiK's total revenue equals more than $3 million a year.
In the 2000s, KVN's monopoly on humor in Russia was shattered when in 2003 several former KVN stars from the New Armenians team invented a new show called Comedy Club (2005) on TV, which gave humor a different approach - with more straightforward and dirty jokes, and without competing teams.
In 2016, when the show celebrated its 55th birthday and Vladimir Putin came to say congratulations, the anniversary concert scored first in the TV ratings throughout the entire year.