Last Comic Standing 2, Episode 11: Then There Were Five... uh, Six

As it has only been a couple of days since Episode Ten, we really have no news to pass on except for the ratings for Tuesday night's Wildcard episode. We jokingly asserted in the last column that viewers must have had no interest in seeing the five voted-out comics return in Episode Nine. It appears that may have been the case, as the Wildcard episode had the worst rating of the season at 4.5 with a 7 Share.

However, it should be pointed out that the show was pre-empted in some areas of the country thanks to the Democratic Convention, so that may have played with the ratings a bit. This could certainly explain why FOX dominated the night over the other network, as they did not cut away to the convention during their primetime broadcasts. Either way, LCS came in a solid second for their time period on Tuesday against CBS and the Big Brother 5 juggernaut.

Although filming was done this afternoon for the "Final Six" semi-finals, tonight's episode is centered on revealing who of the five tossed comics will return to perform in the semi-finals. You can read our thoughts about the Wildcard episode here, but we thought we would repeat how Mike and I thought that ranking would go for the voting done on the comics:

DALE:

1. Jay London
2. Todd
3. ANT
4. Corey
5. Bonnie

MIKE:

1. Jay London
2. Corey
3. Todd
4. ANT
5. Bonnie

The show starts off with a brief recap of the five comics who performed on July 27th and then Jay Mohr is seen coming down the aisle of the Alex Theatre, slapping hands, hugging people, and popping one guy in the mouth in the front row. Okay, he didn't really do that, but it was a funny gag to watch.

Climbing on stage, he reminds people what will be happening on the show that night and that the person will join the final five to make it the final six. Jay then goes on to talk about the next show being a semi-final for the six comics to reduce it to the final three that will perform in one last contest for votes. This is the first time on the show that the semi-final idea has been mentioned, I believe, although NBC.com gave away that little twist a week on their website for voting.

After a bit of a warm-up by Jay about Martha Stewart and how wives remember all of a husband's mistakes, Jay brings out the five comics that performed on July 27th and introduces them to the audience. Jay then goes on to present the five finalists sitting in the front row.

A brief video is shown with the five finalists talking about how the comics did in the wildcard episode. Both John and Tammy start off, talking about how everyone was good and brought their "A-game" to the wildcard contest. Alonzo, Tammy, and Kathleen compliment Bonnie, while Alonzo and John agree that ANT was the best of the group that night. Kathleen and Gary appear to say that they thought Todd was great, which is understandable considering that both Kathleen and Gary had always shown some affection for Todd.

After the video ends, Jay Mohr points out that the five finalists were a bunch of "kiss-asses." He then tells the viewers at home and the audience in the theater that the five wildcard comics will perform a final time tonight. This is a bit of a nice surprise, as it had not been mentioned in any previews that we would get to see them perform again. Perhaps it should have been, as it may have enticed some viewers to watch the show that were only expecting a bunch of recaps followed by the final winner being announced in the last five minutes of the show.

And having them perform again really helps to give a better ending impression of some of them. Corey, the first comic out again, is a good example. While he seemed nervous and slow to really get going on the wildcard episode, he seemed much more relaxed and centered on what he was doing tonight. He did some material on dating and using a video in the courtroom, and it is clear that he has some good acting skills inherent in his material that will probably serve him well as his career moves on. It should also be pointed out that he was still doing largely new material (if not all new material), which seems to be a big factor for him in these final performances. Unlike the July 27th show, Corey remembers to stay out on stage as Jay comes over to him and shakes his hand.

Bonnie is next, and Mohr gives her a big build-up as he brings her out. Bonnie goes back to repeating many jokes from earlier in the series, including a joke about a therapist that she performed just two days before. She still seems a tad rattled and anxious, but at least a bit more together than on the wildcard episode. Bonnie's family is shown in the audience as she finishes. As for the makeover this time around, a reader by the name of Jenefer suggested that Bonnie looks a bit like Bridget Fonda now.

Mohr introduces Jay London and he comes out not only with the traditional coat over his arm, but with what appears to be the same crib-sheet he had on the wildcard episode. It then occurred to me that the so-called crib-sheet may be just as much of a prop as the coat is. After all, his persona is that of the guy who just rushed in to nervously say a few jokes and then leave, so why not have the crib-sheet with him to further complete the look? Maybe we're wrong about that suggestion, but it seems a bit odd that he would do it twice in a row like that.

With or without the crib-sheet, London looked like he was having a ball on stage, although still slightly blown away by the audience cheering him on. At least this time when "Jay's friends" are show, there are four people appearing. Must mean he is moving up in the world.