Last Comic Standing 3. Episode 2: Surprises Galore!

Couple of notes about last night's premiere episode:

Ratings were good for the show, especially considering they were up against NFL football (what is it with sports being a major competitor for LCS, anyway?). Thanks to the show, NBC won the 18-49 demographic with a 4.1, with the closest runner-up being ABC with a 3.7. LCS3 got a 5.0 and an 8 share on top of that. Not the best rating LCS has gotten, but many fans thought the show was starting on August 31, even with all the commercials that ran for the program during the Olympics.

We also have a bit more on Ralphie's performance dedicated to his father on the premiere episode. It appears that the voting in the war-rooms for who would go up in the first episode was done before Ralphie found out about his father's passing. From what we have heard, Ralphie was asked if he wanted to forego the challenge but decided to stay in dedication to his teammates and to his father. This would explain to some why the second season house would pick him - since the voting was done at a different time - and why Ralphie decided to proceed anyway. I'm sure that Ralphie has been getting a lot of condolences from people over the past couple of days, but we would like to extends our sympathy to him and his family at this time as well.

On a personal note, NBC had problems with captioning the first half of the show tonight. This meant that I became an excellent judge of what the people in the first half of the show were wearing, but not what they were saying. However, I know that isn't what most of you are looking for in a review, so I'm going to let Mike handle that part on the first six and then I'll throw in my comments on the final four for tonight. Believe me when I say that it is frustrating, especially as there are a couple of comics from the first season that I felt always got the short end of the stick in that season - Tere Joyce and Sean Kent - and was wanting to see how well they did this year. Fortunately, they both did great from what was seen on the show (no doubt a surprise for some viewers), but more about that in a bit.

The show opens direct and to the point by showing Jay on stage with the ten comics that performed in the first episode. After cutting back to the war-room cameras to show the other ten comics waiting to perform tonight, Jay announces that the team that got the most votes from the August 30 show was LCS2. This was a slight surprise to Mike and I, as we had predicted LCS1 taking the game, but then again I felt that they comics were nearly even last night, so it is not that startling. Good start for LCS2 there and LCS1 can at least work on the premise that it was their first day back and they need some time to get back into the feel of the competition.

Jay tells the audience that they will be announcing the comic from each team that will be leaving the show due to lowest votes at the end of the program. He then explains the rules a bit again as he reminds everyone that the comics tonight only get two minute each to perform.

From LCS1, the comics tonight are:

• Tere Joyce
• Rob Cantrell
• Dat Phan
• Geoff Brown
• Sean Kent

From LCS2, the comics tonight are:

• Jay London
• Corey Holcomb
• Gary Gulman
• Kathleen Madigan
• ANT

Coming up first will be Tere Joyce and Jay London.

Tere has a nice new look and is very energetic. She talks about being told she looked like a hooker, and jokes about therapy. Jill felt that she made for an excellent opener for the show tonight, by the way.

Mike: Let's see, let's give her a chance. Boy, I thought Jay said she had new material. A year's gone by and she hasn't come up with something better? Definitely disappointing!

Jay London comes next and, as we always say here when discussing Jay's sets, he did his usual bizarre wordplay.

Mike: Ah, here we go. Not the best set he's ever had, but still good stuff. I love him, and he was incredibly nice when I interviewed him, so I'm biased.