Al-Bernameg will air on an Egyptian channel, Youssef insists

Bassem Youssef’s comedy talk show, “Al-Bernameg,” will soon be aired on an Egyptian or Arab channel broadcast from Media Production City, the political satirist declared on Thursday.

He denied reports that he had signed a deal with the German channel Deutsche Welle.

"The news is not true. Deutsche Welle is just one channel that is interested. We have received numerous offers from inside Egypt, both from Egyptian channels and Arabic channels based in Egypt, like MBC and Rotana. We are considering all the offers," Youssef said in an interview with the New York Times' the Lede blog.

Youssef said airing his show on a non-Arab channel would be the wrong move.

“Having a German channel air our first run, not the second run, is a little bit iffy, and I don’t think I will go with that. Maybe as a second run. But your primary source has to be an Egyptian or an Arab channel broadcast from inside Media City in Egypt, and we will still have our theater in the middle of Cairo next to Tahrir Square. We cannot change that, even though we were offered much more money [elsewhere]. We will not go with that,” he continued.

The country's premiere political satirist was taken off air early November by the privately owned CBC channel, following a financial and legal feud with the show's production company.

Although CBC declared that the suspension of the show was due financial and legal issues with Al-Bernameg's production company, Youssef argued that their reasons for shutting down the show "do not make sense.”

"We don’t understand how this will be grounds [to cancel the show] because we already delivered the episode as we were supposed to. That would make sense if we did not continue shooting, but they just cut us off. They did not even give us a chance to abide by our side of the contract," Youssef explained.

Critics of the show's suspension have speculated that the military-backed government might have been involved in the decision. Close to 40 complaints were filed against Youssef after his show aired in early November, accusing the television host of insulting the military institution and of treason.

"Were they being pressured? They said they weren’t. Did the upper circles of power dictate that? There is no proof that this happened. Were the lower circles of power thinking they made favors for the upper circles of power, and they told them to do that and they responded? Maybe. But we don’t know," Youssef said.

Two weeks ago, the prosecutor general froze investigations into these complaints due to what he described as "security concerns.”