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How perfect...
mood: 
annoyed
annoyedIt's a simple idea for a show- take a bunch of comedians, have them perform, eliminate one by one until there's a winner. People like to laugh, it can't cost much money to produce, comedians desperately the exposure- seems like an easy winner.
But for a simple concept, NBC screws it up so badly, time and time and time again:
* They spent five weeks, at two hours a pop, on the 'tryouts'. The tryouts were mainly an excuse for judges (stars of other NBC shows) to mug for the cameras as they showed the 'worst of the worst', going for a William Hung effect.
* After that, they spent 2 weeks whittling from the 30 invites to the final 12. Only they didn't invite 30- they invited about ~45 comics, and then un-invited 15. Which REALLY pissed off some of the comics involved.
* They seemed to be going for archtypes instead of the best comedians. I know that's just my opinion, but I can't see how Bob Biggerstarff and Jackie Kashian didn't make the house over Ron G and Ester Ku.
* So they get to twelve, and have two hour shows where they end up with eliminting two comedians per show. But it's basically throwaway gags (Comedians posing for a calendar! Comedians at a car wash!) for an hour and twnety minutes, with one immunity challenge, before voting (which takes forever). Total time of actual stand-up performance: Maybe 10 minutes, tops.
* And couldn't they just split up to one hour shows where it a one-on-one showdown, instead of three people competing at once? Show two in a row to fill up the timeslot.
* After only two showdowns, NBC suddenly realizes the Olympics are showing up, and decide to go from eight comedians down to the finals, eliminating three (who didn't even get a chance to perform until this show). This, after wasting all that time with the early nonsense.
* And, to top it off, they announced the winner last night, only it was the start of NFL Preseason football, so half the country (including here) didn't see it.
Look, I can make LCS work easily. Pick 32 comedians, have an elimination tournament. Each show is eight minutes of person's A act, 8 of person B's act, and the rest is setup/discussion/commercials. Get to the final 8 or final four an lengthen then time, so the final 2 have 20 minutes apiece. Viola- Last Comic Standing, 20 hours of tv, no garbage.
It's not that hard. And NBC spends a lot of time screwing up a show it shouldn't.
hopeful