The end for NBC’s Last Comic Standing?

NBC unveiled its summer slate of TV programming for 2009 today, and Last Comic Standing is nowhere to be found. Not on the schedule. Not on NBC's home page. Not on NBC's page of upcoming shows. The show page remains stuck in time in August 2008. Normally, we'd already be knee-deep in the nationwide auditions for aspiring stand-up comedians, and this year, we have heard nary a peep from the producers or any of the comedy clubs about auditions. A source at the network told me a month ago that no decision had been made yet, despite an announcement made before season six that there would be a seventh season. So, this is it The NBC message board for the show has been placed in its "vault" for shows no longer airing on NBC, and my source told me this afternoon there are no plans to pick up the show. Do you miss it? Or do you think this showcase for stand-up comedy was mercifully put out of its national misery? Should another network take up the cause for aspiring comedians?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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15 thoughts on “The end for NBC’s Last Comic Standing?

  1. I miss what this show *should* have been. What it turned into was something horrible. And, since reading this site I learned of all the backroom shenanigans that I always suspected were happening, I guess I don’t miss it at all.
    To even pretend unknowns working int he clubs could get somewhere on that show was a farce, when the finalists were practically chosen before auditions even happened.

  2. This show was absolute garbage. No one on the show should be allowed in an open mic. The idea that you can film a “reality show” with comedy challenges that ensures the winner WON’T have to perform on national television is ridiculous. Plus, searching the country for the BEST clean comic only adds to the mediocrity of pop culture. The “winners”: Dat Phan, John Heffron, Alonzo Bodden, Josh Blue, Jon Reep, and Iliza Shlesinger. Would anyone bother to go to any of their bringer shows? I doubt it. Good riddance LCS, and I hope Jimmy Fallon gets cancer.

  3. I agree with Stace. At the root of it, it gave exposure to a lot of people who might not have gotten it. Season 1 was great, season 2 was tolerable… but by last year, I had enough. I knew too much about the wheeling and dealing to be interested in actually watching it.

  4. To an extent, it’s a loss in that LCS gave exposure to underexposed comics. For a few seasons I’ve been watching the early episodes. But I always drop out before the finals. Why? Because too many good comics are dropped for no explicable reason, and too many mediocre ones get waved ahead with a similar lack of sense. And why is that? Because it wasn’t a comedy show, it was a reality show. Setting up the stock reality competition situations had primacy over everything else. So ultimately I agree with Stace that it could have been something great, but in the end wasn’t.

  5. Live At Gotham is also, apparently, on hiatus.
    This could be good thing.
    Maybe without the TV outlets for “younger”/”greener” comics, these comics can focus less on developing a TV set, and more on developing themselves.
    That, plus shifted audience expectations (away from LCS), might help comedy grow in ways that benefit everyone.
    Still… I’d like to get on TV.

  6. I’m going to miss it for the simple fact that there is not a lot of stand-up comedy to be found on tv, outside of CC and HBO.
    As an events programmer at my college, i run into a lot of the lesser knowns from the show who got good exposure. It was nice for a bunch of people to get gigs…but the producers had way too much say in things, and it was evident to any watcher.

  7. The only negative about LCS going away is that there is now less of a spotlight shown on an already under-appreciated stand-up comedy scene. I hope that a network like HBO, that doesn’t need to censor anything, finds a way to document stand-up and up and coming comedians in an honest way that never, ever includes Bill Bellamy unless it’s a picture of his face on a dart board.

  8. I will definitely miss Last comic Standing. It is, or rather was the only reality show except Dancing with the Stars that I found of any value on Television. It may have had its faults but it provided a lot of very good comedians with some very good exposure and in my household it will be missed.

  9. I love the show and we miss it. I really enjoyed all the show downs. I remember back to Josh Blue. Please bring it back!

  10. I will miss it. I really like it. I thought it got good ratings, but I guess not.

  11. I liked the show. I do agree that it was more reality on some aspects, then comedy. But it was also nice after a long day to come home and get a few laughs at someone else’s twisted spin on the world. Some of the comics were genuinely funny. I don’t like that it was less about america voting then the comics voting someone off.. I know that the comics had a say but i think america should have been able to vote more.

  12. I’ll miss it. I wish NBC would issue DVDs of the seasons, and I wish Comedy Central could take it over and do it right … make it a real competition.
    ~forever a Dave Mordal fan

  13. last comic standing was a joke, we were all told two minutes in front of judges. i drove 11 hours to audition, stood in line for 8 hours, was then taken to a tent in the parking lot with 9 other people and was told “gimme 30 seconds, go”, by what i’m guessing was the stage crew. never even seen the judges

  14. I suppose shows like this are never really meant to be. Last Comic Standing was not really suited to someone who really likes stand up comedy, just as the XFacter and x Idol are not suited to people who like music and real performers.

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