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Last Comic Standing is a reality television series which premiered in 2003. The object is to select a comedian from a field of comedians, who will receive a development contract with NBC (now NBC Universal), and a special (originally on Comedy Central and later on Bravo).

The show is produced by Peter Engel.

Premise

The show begins with two talent scouts, Ross Mark and Bob Read, hold open casting calls in various states around the America in search of 40 comics to go to New York and compete against each other at the Radio City Music Hall for the 12 spots in the house. There, the group is divided in half and two competitions are held. From these two groups of 20 people, 10 are selected to be sent to Las Vegas, where they again compete against each other in front of a live audience. Here, 10 finalists are selected to live in a house together for the duration of the series.

Each week the players have to compete in different games and tasks, all related in some way to stand-up comedy. Some of these competitions include performing stand-up at a local laundromat, working as a tour guide in LA, participating in a roast at the Friars Club of Beverly Hills or performing about a specific subject with little preparation time on a morning radio show.

The winner of each contest is rewarded, usually with immunity from being sent to the stand-off. After the weekly competition, contestants choose a comic who they could defeat in a stand-off (by sitting in a booth and stating "I know I'm funnier than __."). The person with the most votes chooses one of the contestants who voted for them and the two of them compete in front of a crowd at the Last Comic Theater to determine who's voted out for the week.

At the end of all the competitions one player remains and is known as The Last Comic Standing.

Seasons

Season 1: Summer 2003

The first season aired in the summer of 2003 and was hosted by Jay Mohr. The winner of the audience-participation final vote in Season 1 was Dat Phan with 35% of the vote; other finalists included Ralphie May (28%), Rich Vos (18%), Cory Kahaney (12%) and Tess Drake (7%). Contestants who did not make the final five were: Geoff Brown, Tere Joyce, Sean Kent, Dave Mordal, and Rob Cantrell.

Season 2: Summer 2004

Season 2 aired in summer 2004 with the winner being John Heffron, the first runner-up Alonzo Bodden, and the second Gary Gulman. The other contestants were: Ant, Tammy Pescatelli, Bonnie McFarlane, Jay London, Kathleen Madigan, Todd Glass, and Corey Holcomb.

Buck Star first appeared in this season, becomming a recurring contestant as he followed the judges across the U.S.. Despite his efforts, he did not enter the next round where the contestants were to perform in front of a live audience until the very last stop (Boston) when Ross Mark decided to show him some compassion and pass him through. However, Buck failed to impress the audience and stopped there.

Season 3: Fall 2004

Last Comic Standing was picked up for a third season in summer 2004 for airing in fall of 2004. The third season consisted of a competition between the final ten comedians from Seasons 1 and 2. The grand prize for this season, unlike previous seasons, was a flat $250,000 (no development deal or special).

Alonzo Bodden, the runner-up from Season 2, ended up winning the title.

Cancellation
Due to lackluster ratings in the third season (falling as low as 74th in the prime-time Nielsen Ratings), NBC cancelled the show before they would have aired the last episode of the third season. That episode was later shown on Comedy Central rather than NBC. Some say the low ratings were due to overexposure, as the third season started quickly after the second ended.

Rumor had it that the show was cancelled so NBC could air a 4-episode block of Father of the Pride in order to boost the ratings. The show ended up being cancelled anyways.

Season 4: Summer 2006

On May 30, 2006 the show returned to NBC with a 2 hour special and new host Anthony Clark.

Thus far in season four the ratings have been so-so, beating out the ratings for season three and season two. It usually gets a 4.4 share (4,848,800 households) coming in second or third in its timeslot. If ratings continue as they have been NBC will likely continue the series to a fifth season.

Controversy

One of the concepts of the show involved the fact that a panel of four celebrity judges were utilized to help whittle the 40 semi-finalists down to 10 finalists. However it was revealed, unintentionally, that the celebrity judges did not actually have any legitimate power over what final contestants when two of the celebrity judges, comedians Drew Carey and Brett Butler responded in outrage and stormed away from the judge's table after the finalists were announced.

The two were then shown backstage arguing with producers; they did not understand how the finalists who were announced could possibly be correct as it did not add up with their votes. It was revealed that a panel of four producers were also casting votes in the process, assuring that unless all four celebrity judges cast the exact same ten votes, a highly unlikely event, their voting power could be usurped by the four unanimously agreeing producer votes. (If for some reason all four celebrity judges did cast the exact same votes, the worst the producers would be faced with is a tie.)

Carey became further outraged upon learning this information; he expressed that he was infuriated that he had been led to believe he had an actual say in the outcome of the show when "all you wanted was our faces" (in other words, their presence was meaningless except to draw in viewers based on their star power). Ultimately, the legitimacy of the program and contest was compromised as it was proven that contestants were not being chosen based on the quality of their stand-up comedy, but in fact at least partially on how entertaining their interactions while living together would be for a television audience. Another important revelation was that some of the finalists who advanced were clients of the producers or directors of the show, which indicated that the show was intended to promote certain comics, rather than depicting comics being chosen by merit.

It was also alleged that some of the competitors in opening rounds are in fact plants hired by the producers to liven up the auditions on televisionBuck Star, a comedian who follows talent executives Bob Read & Ross Mark to auditions across the country, is rumored to be a production assistant for NBC [http://cringehumor.net/columns/062604_lcs2.htm. Also, many of the amateur comedians have to battle directly with some well-known comics, making it harder for amateurs to progress in the competition and making it easy for veterans to stage a comeback or to maintain exposure to the public between projects.

To further fuel the controversy, the contestants in season 4 seem to have been chosen more as a casting of stereotypes and gender roles rather than chosen for their comedic talents. Public outrage over the final 12 contestants was immediate and vocal with longtime fans of the show calling for boycotts. While two of the finalists were picked as audience favorites, several selections were questionable at best, according to public opinion. It should be noted that season 4's top 12 had six men and six women, which may indicate that producers chose some contestants to make a balanced group and not necessarily the funniest one.

Trivia

External links

Comedy | Reality television series | Last Comic Standing

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Last Comic Standing".

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