Tony Nominee Rivers To Be 'Roasted' On Comedy Central, Airs August 9

Comedic icon and COMEDY CENTRAL Roastee Joan Rivers is in for one fiery evening. COMEDY CENTRAL announced today that double Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated comedienne Kathy Griffin has been tapped as Roast Master for this year's "COMEDY CENTRAL Roast Of Joan Rivers." The event tapes in Los Angeles at CBS Studios - Radford on Sunday, July 26. The "COMEDY CENTRAL Roast Of Joan Rivers" airs on Sunday, August 9 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

In honor of one of comedy's most trailblazing female performers, comedy icon Joan Rivers, COMEDY CENTRAL is making network history with its first-ever female pairing of Roastee and Roast Master. With Griffin steering the Roast and Rivers capping off the evening with a sure-to-be-spitfire rebuttal, no one will be safe from this explosive duo!

"It will be my distinct pleasure to honor a true comedy legend. The One and Only, The Great, Joan Rivers," said Kathy Griffin. "I mean, not that Pam Anderson wasn't a comedy legend or anything... Let's just say it will be an evening of highs and lows. I will be roasting Joan with more gentleness and tenderness than her latest chemical peel and, on the other hand, I will give her a verbal pap smear and god only knows what I'm going to find down there."

Double Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Chicago native Griffin, a multi-faceted performer with a rapid fire wit, is probably best known for her four-year stint on the NBC sitcom "Suddenly Susan" as Vickie Groener, Brooke Shields' acerbic colleague. In 2007 and 2008, "Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D List" won Griffin two back-to-back Emmy's for Outstanding Reality Program. Recently, Griffin released a comedy CD called "For Your Consideration" which garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. Griffin's fifth season of "My Life On The D List" is currently airing Monday nights on Bravo.