Hall of Shame Moment: No Humor in NBC’s Handling of 'Last Comic Standing' Finale

DICK: I don’t get it. If the show was doing okay in the ratings and only had one week to go, why pull it?

DAN: Which brings us back to Father of the Pride. Or rather its production company Dreamworks and their deal for supplying NBC with a show that costs between $2 - $2.5 million to produce each week for a solid 22 week investment . Once people at NBC saw the ratings dropped they had to find someone or something to blame.

DICK: A-ha! And that’s when Last Comic Standing 3 came into the picture.

DAN: You’re way ahead of me, Dick.

DICK: When then I’ll slow down. You see --

DAN: That’s okay, Dick, I’m up to speed with you.

DICK: Well, don’t let it happen again.

DAN: Anyway, even though the ratings of Last Comic Standing were not following the same slide that Father of the Pride did, NBC decided that they needed to showcase their new animated series during the 8:00 timeslot. So they pulled the final episode of Last Comic Standing 3 in order to run two repeat episodes of Father of the Pride.

DICK: If they didn’t show the last episode of Last Comic Standing 3, how did fans find out who won?

DAN: By NBC telling people at the beginning of the Father of the Pride repeats to check out the announcement on the official website.

DICK: But what about viewers that don’t have the Internet?

DAN: Then they could turn on Comedy Central that Saturday to watch the half-hour finale that NBC allowed the producers of Last Comic Standing 3 to film.

DICK: But what about viewers that don’t have Comedy Central or the Internet?

DAN: Then those viewers were just flat out of luck.

DICK: Well, at least the show got a final half-hour to tie things up.

DAN: Yes, after an avalanche of complaints were sent to NBC about the cancellation. Even then, NBC would never commit to show the finale reviewing the final votes, going from giving the show a half-hour possibly on NBC, to an hour on Comedy Central, and then finally a half-hour on Comedy Central.

DICK: It’s starting to make my head spin.

DAN: Which I would think would come easily for you. But there’s even more.

DICK: MORE?!

DAN: Yes, more, my very loud friend. By supplying the winner’s name online four days before Comedy Central aired the half-hour special, NBC sabotaged the viewership of their own show. After all, why bother watching Comedy Central for the winner when NBC already told you four days ago.

DICK: Boy, it doesn’t sound like NBC really has a handle on their reality series, does it?

DAN: No, it doesn’t.

DICK: Say, you never mentioned how the Father of the Pride episodes did that week they replaced Last Comic Standing 3? At least NBC can say that their ratings climbed, right?

DAN: Wrong. In fact, the ratings for NBC during the hour of 8-9 on October 12, 2004, actually dropped further than Last Comic Standing 3 had done the previous week. Meanwhile, the new episode of Father of the Pride that aired at 9 achieved the lowest rating yet for the series, with a 5.2 and 6 share.

DICK: So after all this, did NBC achieve anything?

DAN: Most certainly – confusion and possibly cancellation for a series that had been a solid summertime hit for two years in Last Comic Standing, a bitterness by many viewers towards Father of the Pride that had not existed before, lower ratings, and angry viewers wanting to boycott the network.

DICK: With all that horrible stuff going on for NBC, I almost feel bad in giving them this award.

DAN: Keep in mind, Dick, NBC bought Trio, the cable network that has been running repeats of our program, back in September 2003 and there are talks that NBC may decide to beef up the channel’s programming.

DICK: So no more Laugh-In reruns?

DAN: One can never quite say for sure. But after seeing how they handled one comedy program on their primetime schedule, anything is possible.

DICK: In that case, this week’s Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Aware goes to you, NBC, for your diligent work in possibly ruining not one but TWO comedy series on your schedule through bad programming decisions. And, of course, a Reality TV Hall of Shame Moment to go along with that award.

DAN: Good work, Dick.

DICK: Good to just work with you again, Dan. Hey, how are things were you are?

DAN: Oh, it’s great, especially in the smoking lounge up there. Talk to Einstein nearly every day. And it’s one of the few places I can get away from Tiny Tim for a while.

The two walk off-camera together as they continue talking.

You can e-mail Dale about this column or his other projects at justabob@iglou.com. You can also click here to buy his book, The Urban Legends of Rock and Roll: You Never Can Tell, or any of his other books.

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