NBC’s reboot of Last Comic Standing debuts Thursday with a two-hour premiere and the promise of mentors for the top 10 finalists picked from the 100 invited stand-up comedian contestants.
Wanda Sykes, one of the Last Comic executive producers, will show up on camera as one of the mentors for the finalists. Joining Sykes? None other than Howie Mandel, who’s also a long-running judge on NBC’s other summer talent competition — America’s Got Talent — plus past Last Comic finalist Amy Schumer, Cheryl Hines and Jeff Ross.
Among the announced challenges:
- A Roast, where Ross serves as Roastmaster and Gilbert Gottfried appears as the roast victim. Gottfried previously served as a judge of a Last Comic Roast challenge in season four.
- A visit to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, with Sykes mentoring the finalists on their TV interview skills and the finalists grilled by DeGeneres.
Audition rounds with the Top 100, hosted by JB Smoove, and judged by Roseanne Barr, Russell Peters and Keenen Ivory Wayans, will air May 22, May 29 and June 5.
The winner this season receives a cash prize, a talent deal and a development deal for a television show (total worth $250,000).
Last Comic also posted another audition video today. This is Zainab Johnson (who recently made her TV debut on Arsenio).