For most people who would watch Last Comic Standing, it was the only reality show they'd admit having an addiction to. I was one of these folks.

If you've never seen it, it's basically a mix between American Idol and Big Brother, only instead of singers or smelly beautiful people you've got standup comedians. They live under one roof and piss each other off so, when voting time comes, they can challenge each other to head-to-head performances in front of a live audience. In these weekly showdowns, the less-funny person goes home (theoretically). It's a great setup for a show, and while it hasn't made a Dane Cook out of anybody, Last Comic Standing has made many comics a lot more famous on their circuits. Not mention providing entertainment for people who aren't that fond of reality shows.

Now, I never understood why NBC is in 4th place for network ratings. Then I realized their bungling of LCS was just an example.

The show's a mess, really, but most of what has people miffed is the casting. It's not the Real World, and LCS' fans watch it partly for that reason. The other reason, of course, is that we want to hear funny jokes. NBC never caught on to that, inciting fans to call for everything between boycott and what sounds like Marxist overthrow.

Traditionally, the show casts the 10 (or this year's 12) comics by taping a performance in LA for about 40 of the contestants, complete with a panel of celebrity "judges" to "choose" who gets in the house. But contestants who earned standing ovations for their incendiary performances were often passed over for someone who would add diversity to the cast or butt heads with the other comics. This was a surprise even to the judges, themselves, and comic greats Drew Carey and Brett Butler stormed off the job last season when they learned what was really going on. It turned out that the judges only counted as three votes; the many others came from a table full of NBC producers who seem to hate both comedy and people who watch television. That's still the case.

In this season's final audition, for example, they looked at Stella and thought, "she's the comedic equivalent of passing a kidney stone, but wouldn't it be something to have a pregnant drama queen in the house?"

It's like affirmative action if it were based not on race but obnoxiousness, and that's just not fair no matter what your political sensibilities are.

Stella's gone now, since she expectedly bombed her elimination performance in Week 1, but it's a waste of an episode to have to get rid of hacks like her, and it'll take many more episodes to finish that job.

That's a harsh thing to say about some of these performers who no doubt work very hard at their craft, but the truth is that they didn't get cast for their talent. For the second straight season, NBC cast Last Comic Standing like it was the Real World, and fans just felt betrayed again.

I thought this show was going to do something really nice for standup, which is the oldest and purest form of comedy we have. It seemed that having a major network display the tension, drama, and (of course) fun of trying to succeed as a comedian would help the art gain more respect and popularity. People expect every reality show to do this for its showcased profession. LCS just won't have that effect, unfortunately, and I won't be surprised to find it canceled early like it was last season.

But standup is mostly a niche thing in America and will probably stay that way for a long time. As far as I know, the public sees it as a job funny people do until they get their own sitcoms or movies or spots on Saturday Night Live, and only then can they be taken seriously as performers (well, maybe not the SNL part anymore, but you know). Still, can you think of some comedians who should really leave well enough alone (*cough* Chris Rock *cough*)?

So for now, standup comedy will keep living in its corner on Comedy Central, with the occaisional HBO special. I just hope standup doesn't become what music videos are to MTV, that's all.