Last Comic Standing 6, Episode 11: The Five Finalists

As always, a quick look at the ratings. Interesting comment on the website where I’ve been checking the nightly rating results – after pointing out that Episode 10 of LCS only did a 4.7, they thought there was a chance that the show would be cancelled. Thing is, the show has done worse than that in previous seasons and tied for the top spot with the 18-49 demos for the first hour. The commentary on the ratings went on to say that it probably was doubtful that the show would be cancelled, and I agree. The show is a cheap moneymaker for NBC and there’s no need to get rid of it.

Couple of quick observations from peeking around the Internet during the week before the episode aired: The official NBC website for LCS had an odd week, what with someone writing to the message board there to complain that their business phone had been ringing off the hook because they had a similar phone number to one used in the voting. The curious part of that was that the person complaining then immediately stated their phone number in their message, which seemed either like a really poor way to advertise your business through a website (“We’re a business and here’s our number! Don’t call us! Don’t put us in the Brier Patch! Yes, it’s our number, but we don’t want your business!”), or someone who can’t figure out that their number was a digit off from the NBC one and therefore just a cause of people not knowing how to push numbers on their phones.

The other observation was noting that a couple of websites had already put up spoilers as to who wins this week. Commonly, these are a bit off, but I have to say they were spot-on this year, and it looks like someone blabbed who won before people were supposed to know.

This week, viewers are to find out which three of the remaining eight comics will be eliminated. Actually, all the advertising indicated that viewers will find out who the final five are, but with the way the reveal of who is eliminated is put together, it really seemed more about who lost than won this week. More about that in a little bit.

Bill and Fearne appear at the start of the show, which is filmed at the Paris in Las Vegas. To kick off the show, they introduce Dan & The Dan Band, which is actually comedian Dan Finnerty and two background singers/dancers in business suits, to sing an original song about LCS. At a mid-point in the song, Dan and the dancers run off-stage while the eight comics come out, one by one, to scream a couple of lines about why they should be the Last Comic Standing. I say scream because most of the show had faulty audio that dropped out voices here and there when the audience would applaud or music was played.

Perhaps it is just as well, as the comments the comics make are not very funny and it played like something you would have seen in a bad variety show from the 1970s. You’re just waiting for Jim Nabors to come out after a certain point. Or at least Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.

Dan and his singers come back out and finish the song, getting a standing ovation in the process. Then again, everyone gets a standing ovation during the show. I think even the lighting guys and the flunkies getting coffee probably wound up getting standing ovations at some point. Why even mention it then? Because if you read somewhere, “Hey, that comic got a standing ovation after their set!” you’ll know it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s all television, after all.

With the frightening introduction over, Bill and Fearne introduce the first comic who will be performing on the program, Marcus. Now, it should be mentioned that at no time is it stated how the reveal of the final five is to be done, but it’s pretty easy to figure it out once they get rolling: Each of the eight comics will perform a set and then, once they’re done, Bill or Fearne will pull them aside on stage and tell them if they have been eliminated or if viewers should call in to vote for who they want to win on the finale next week.

This means that when one of the eight performs, they have no way of knowing if their set is going to be one that they can blow off because it doesn’t matter anyway, or will be one that will be voted on by viewers at home. So everyone has to be at the top of their game, even if they are to be eliminated a few minutes later. Thus, everyone is going all-out.

As with previous columns this season, let’s go through the comics’ performances and who may have a chance to win it all.

Marcus: Got into the finale based on an immunity won in Episode 10. Thus, he did not have to compete to get to the final five. An interview before his set shows that he had started doing voices while working at a radio station and was talked into trying to do stand-up from there. His set covers suspicious items at the airport, and a variety of material about music (where he mentions that he once was a singer in a band) and in particular Pearl Jam, Aaron Neville, R&B music today, and not knowing lyrics.