"Last Comic Standing 2" and "For Love or Money [3?]"

Ah, it's that time of the year when reality TV junkies hit a rough patch, not unlike the months of February and March where there's no football and no baseball (spring training doesn't really count). At least CBS is airing "The Amazing Race 5" starting in July, and by the fall, there will be "The Apprentice 2" and "Survivor 1543(?)."

Until then, there's "For Love or Money" and "Last Comic Standing." Let's start with "For Love or Money." I guess this is "For Love or Money 3," since last year gave birth to "For Love or Money," in which Rob picked Erin, and Erin picked the $1 million over Rob; and "For Love or Money 2," in which Erin played double or nothing, picked Chad, and had Chad pick her. I swore off the dating-based reality TV shows a while ago, but while slumming the other night, I happened to catch the part of the show where the smarmy host explained the twist to the 15 women who were competing: each woman will be playing for a different amount of money, depending on the check that she selects, except she won't know how much her check is for. So, in the end, if she's selected, she can take the guy or the check, but she won't know until later how much she's won.

That is just brilliant! I actually stopped watching after that, but here is a good recap of the episode if that's your cup of tea.

Meanwhile, there was also the premeire of "Last Comic Standing 2." Last year gave us the inconsistent Dat Phan, who won mostly by making fun of his Vietnamese parents' heavily accented English. This year, the initial contestants have run the gamut, from the running joke of a guy who shows up at the tryout auditions in every city, to a stripper turned comedienne, to some pretty recognizable names like Will Durst.

The strange thing about this show is that the tryout episodes are kind of the reverse of "American Idol." Here, the bad auditions aren't funny, just stupid.

It's too bad that the talent scouts who selected the people for callbacks and then for the semifinals aren't in the competition, because they're often funnier than the comics auditioning for the spots.

Adam at Throwing Things points out a fundamental flaw with the structure of the show:

namely, that the weekly showdowns featured the two least talented performers each week, giving them more exposure than the funnier comics we'd rather be watching. We shall see.

Well, there was the time that Dat Phan challenged Dave Mordahl (who was probably the funniest one) -- and somehow won! I guess the producers could have an "immunity challenge" consisting of joke-offs, and the funniest one is safe from elimination.

Anyway, I won't be tuning in to "For Love or Money," but I probably will watch "Last Comic Standing."

Comments

[Adam]

Mordahl was good, Tess was better, but I'm still stunned that Ralphie May didn't win that -- even if he was already working as, among other things, one of Jay Mohr's writers.

[Adam]

Mordahl was good, Tess was better, but I'm still stunned that Ralphie May didn't win that -- even if he was already working as, among other things, one of Jay Mohr's writers.

[VanDamn]

The Last Comic Standing is a rigged piece of crap. Absolutely horrible, and I won't watch it ever again after tonights episode. Corporate managers make decisions on which comics move forward (becaue they know the business), leaving the comic facade judges in an uproar. Terrible show.