Funny Business at 'Last Comic' Irks Comedians

[John]

Funny Business at 'Last Comic' Irks Comedians
Sun Mar 7, 7:53 PM ET

By Nellie Andreeva and Georg Szalai

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Two celebrity judges on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" have raised questions about the veracity of the show's process for selecting the final 10 participants to be featured in the televised competition.



Comedians Drew Carey and Brett Butler said their input as judges was discounted during the semifinal round that took place last month in favor of NBC executives and the show's producers. One of "Last Comic's" executive producers, Barry Katz, also is the manager of two of the performers who made the final 10, the one-name comic Ant and Gary Gulman, and he also manages "Last Comic" host Jay Mohr.


In an interview last week at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., where he headlined two events, Carey cited the discrepancy between the show's final picks and the judges' reactions to the 20 contenders in the semifinals, which took place Feb. 26 at Le Theater des Arts in Las Vegas.


"I thought it was crooked and dishonest," Carey said. "It was like somebody at NBC cast the show ahead of the event in Vegas. And they had 1,100 in the audience (for the semifinals competition) who saw how blatantly it was cast. If this happened on 'Survivor' or any other reality TV show, it would be a major scandal."


Sources close to the show noted that while the judges' opinion in the rounds leading to the final are taken into account, the final decision is made by the show's producers and NBC executives, and a fine-print disclaimer to that effect ran in the credits of the show's first season.


Carey argued that the judges were misled about the nature of their role. Carey and Butler served as celebrity judges alongside "Yes, Dear" star Anthony Clark and Tess Drake, a finalist from the first season of "Last Comic."


Butler echoed Carey's sentiment in a posting last week on her Web site.


"As panel judges, we can say that (a) we were both surprised and disappointed at the results and (b) we had NOTHING to do with them," Butler wrote.


Katz was in Aspen for the festival, but declined to comment on the issue.


Mohr was scheduled to film footage for "Last Comic" during the festival, but canceled due to an illness, sources said.


NBC will continue with the production of the show as planned, with the 10 finalists selected in Vegas moving into a house together during the taping of the series.


"The casting decisions were made by NBC and NBC Studios in consultation with talent scouts and we appreciate their valuable input," NBC said in a statement. "Now that the 10 participants have been selected, the program will begin. As was the case last season, during the show, the comic elimination decisions will now be made by audiences who watch the comics perform without any input from NBC, NBC Studios or anyone else associated with the program."

[Google]

 

[glennajo]

Well, they say there's no such thing as bad publicity.

How many reality shows do people think aren't influenced by the producers? I doubt it will keep many people from watching. I know I'll still be watching it.

[Maveno]

Sure I'll watch...but I won't have to like the fact that it's "rigged"...also, I won't "water cooler chat" about how great it is and how everyone should be watching it. That is just MY influence on my co-workers (who get all reality show info from me).
So, no..I don't agree with "any publicity is good publicity".
Especially in a competition like this... hell, now I know why Dat Phan won, cause he sure didn't do it by sheer funniness.

Bummer for this producer. But it cracks me up how people pull the: "No comment" palm when confronted with blatent evidence of stuff.

[Zhora]

Stupid. Why bother having judges if they have no input? Not that it really makes a difference for me. I doubt I'll watch the show this season anyway. Dat Phan pretty much ruined it for me, and I don't want to get sucked in again.

[Krom]

I'm very glad this article was shlepped over from the LCS1 forum. When I first read this months ago it disturbed me quite a bit. I mean we all suspected it was somewhat fixed (even when the "fix" broke and Dat Phan won anyway--I'm still scratching my head over that one), but Carey and Butler are two straight arrows whose viewpoints I tend to trust. If they smell something rotten, it's rotten.

Jay Mohr lost a bucket of respect when "pals" like Ralphie May were in on it last time (look... it's not that I would have preferred a competition filled with Dat Phans, it's just the emphasis SHOULD have been on real amateurs. With a Dave Mordal level of relative obscurity and unconectiveness to Jay Mohr or more...).

This ain't helping.

[Zhora]

...and didn't "Ant" almost make the show last year too?

:rolleyes

[scooberoo]

I'm just hoping people like Lang Parker aren't cut from the top ten. I really only lilked Tere Joyce from last year, so I didn't think last season's top ten was that great. Hopefully they made right decisions, and didn't choose based on something like race, gender, or age. Probably not, though.

[scooberoo]

Originally Posted by Zhora

...and didn't "Ant" almost make the show last year too?

:rolleyes

He almost did, but I thought he was funny. Joe Rogan thought his material wasn't very original, though.

[Carla]

Originally Posted by scooberoo

I'm just hoping people like Lang Parker aren't cut from the top ten.

I thought she was good too. I was able to go to the final taping in Vegas last year. She was there and I told her I thought she should have made it into the house. She was really nice and seemed really appreciative.

[senrik]

Originally Posted by Maveno

Sure I'll watch...but I won't have to like the fact that it's "rigged"...also, I won't "water cooler chat" about how great it is and how everyone should be watching it. That is just MY influence on my co-workers (who get all reality show info from me).
So, no..I don't agree with "any publicity is good publicity".
Especially in a competition like this... hell, now I know why Dat Phan won, cause he sure didn't do it by sheer funniness.

Bummer for this producer. But it cracks me up how people pull the: "No comment" palm when confronted with blatent evidence of stuff.

Gosh, I do love Train Wreck Reality shows. Especially when the train wreck is unintentional.