"Best Week Ever" on VH1 changes format - More like "The Soup"
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"Best Week Ever" on VH1 changes format - More like "The Soup"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/ar...=1&oref=slogin
For nearly five years, viewers looking to catch up on the world of pop culture could turn to “Best Week Ever” on VH1, where an array of talking heads — comedians, writers and entertainment personalities like Nick Kroll, Rachel Harris and Judah Friedlander of “30 Rock” — would dish and snark on the lives of the Lohans, the Spears’, reality-show contestants and anyone else caught midfoible in a video clip.
The change is part of a larger revamping of the show, the channel’s longest-running weekly series if not its most popular. “Clearly, some of our reality shows get bigger numbers,” said Jim Ackerman, the senior vice president for development at VH1, referring to programs like “I Love New York.” “But I think ‘Best Week Ever’ has helped find the voice of the channel in the last couple years.”
Still, he added, “it was time to shake up the format a little bit,” especially since that love-to-hate-it take on celebrity minutiae has been widely copied. “With Paul, we get a bit of control and we get a more singular voice, and I think we might be more consistently funny.” Though Mr. Ackerman said the change was not ratings-driven, Mr. Tompkins acknowledged that there was competition with “The Soup,” the E! network’s similar pop-culture wrap-up show, hosted by Joel McHale. It is shown at 10 p.m. on Fridays — “Best Week Ever” is on an hour later — but is repeated twice as often throughout the week. (Both are half-hour weekly series. According to Nielsen, in the last year “Best Week Ever” averaged 520,000 prime-time viewers; “The Soup,” 890,000.) Though some features of the old “Best Week Ever,” like “The Sizzler,” a quick gossip rundown, will remain, and some former panelists will return for scripted bits, the new show will be more written-through, and may even have a less mean-spirited take, more in line with Mr. Tompkins’s genial point of view.
“Sometimes it feels weird to get invested in the ups and downs of these strangers,” he said. “I would rather the target be Dina Lohan, who is an adult, who is making her own decisions in a supposedly rational way, than pick on someone who is still figuring out her own life.”
The new show, called “Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins,” will not abandon the sarcasm entirely but will be “snarky with a heart, snarky with a conscience,” Mr. Tompkins said, though he may have been snarking slightly when he said it.
Mr. Tompkins, 40, has contributed to “Best Week Ever” since it started, and he said getting the call to host was a rare instance of show-business ambition matching up with opportunity. “When I would watch the show,” he said, “I would always wish I was on it more.” Three weeks ago he and his girlfriend, Janie Haddad, an actress, moved to New York from Los Angeles, where he had lived for 14 years.
Though he has been a big shot in stand-up circles for more than a decade, he is not a household name to general audiences, despite appearing on the HBO cult favorite “Mr. Show With Bob and David” in the 1990s and, more recently, on “The Sarah Silverman Program” on Comedy Central, which also showed several of his stand-up specials. “I’m known as the guy who wears the suits, because the guy named Paul with the gap in his teeth was not specific enough,” he said, referring to his fellow commentator, the less-nattily-dressed comedian Paul Scheer. Off screen, Mr. Tompkins’s humor is also more conceptual. Asked what his middle initial stands for, he said, “Fascism. It’s a family name.” (It’s actually Francis.)
But earlier this year, VH1 experimented with a three-and-a-half-minute show called “Best Day Ever,” which he hosted, and executives were pleased. (“It was almost as if we saw the future of the show,” Mr. Ackerman said.) “Best Day Ever” has also returned this week, Monday through Thursday, with Mr. Tompkins again hosting.
With the move to a single host, the look of “Best Week Ever” will change. While the talking heads were always seated in front of a colored screen, Mr. Tompkins will stand behind a piece of furniture that he termed a podo-desk (a podium-desk). “I’m already experimenting with elbow leans, with left foot versus right foot, with shifting my weight, distributing my weight,” he said. “So there’s going to be no surprises when it finally comes down to it.” His only other preparation: requesting a teleprompter.
Staff members of “Best Week Ever” are also figuring out how to work to Mr. Tompkins’s strengths. “Already we’re getting a lot better at writing with Paul’s voice in mind,” Sean Johnson, the executive producer, said. In a dry run last week he, a half-dozen other producers and Mr. Tompkins gathered in an orange conference room in VH1’s new brightly colored offices near TriBeCa to go over scripts. Their first bit involved a clip of Cloris Leachman, 82, stumbling through a number on “Dancing With the Stars.” It ended with her being wildly twirled by her partner, panting and showcasing her décolletage to the cameras.
“And in the end of days, a half-woman, half-man creature will crawl across the earth, its bosom large and its tongue agape, and ye shall know ye are a godless people,” Mr. Tompkins intoned. In a taping, he punched up this line by delivering it in the manner of an old-timey preacher.
Mr. Johnson and his crew were pleased. “I’m sure we can tackle the elderly-abuse angle next week,” he said.
The change is part of a larger revamping of the show, the channel’s longest-running weekly series if not its most popular. “Clearly, some of our reality shows get bigger numbers,” said Jim Ackerman, the senior vice president for development at VH1, referring to programs like “I Love New York.” “But I think ‘Best Week Ever’ has helped find the voice of the channel in the last couple years.”
Still, he added, “it was time to shake up the format a little bit,” especially since that love-to-hate-it take on celebrity minutiae has been widely copied. “With Paul, we get a bit of control and we get a more singular voice, and I think we might be more consistently funny.” Though Mr. Ackerman said the change was not ratings-driven, Mr. Tompkins acknowledged that there was competition with “The Soup,” the E! network’s similar pop-culture wrap-up show, hosted by Joel McHale. It is shown at 10 p.m. on Fridays — “Best Week Ever” is on an hour later — but is repeated twice as often throughout the week. (Both are half-hour weekly series. According to Nielsen, in the last year “Best Week Ever” averaged 520,000 prime-time viewers; “The Soup,” 890,000.) Though some features of the old “Best Week Ever,” like “The Sizzler,” a quick gossip rundown, will remain, and some former panelists will return for scripted bits, the new show will be more written-through, and may even have a less mean-spirited take, more in line with Mr. Tompkins’s genial point of view.
“Sometimes it feels weird to get invested in the ups and downs of these strangers,” he said. “I would rather the target be Dina Lohan, who is an adult, who is making her own decisions in a supposedly rational way, than pick on someone who is still figuring out her own life.”
The new show, called “Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins,” will not abandon the sarcasm entirely but will be “snarky with a heart, snarky with a conscience,” Mr. Tompkins said, though he may have been snarking slightly when he said it.
Mr. Tompkins, 40, has contributed to “Best Week Ever” since it started, and he said getting the call to host was a rare instance of show-business ambition matching up with opportunity. “When I would watch the show,” he said, “I would always wish I was on it more.” Three weeks ago he and his girlfriend, Janie Haddad, an actress, moved to New York from Los Angeles, where he had lived for 14 years.
Though he has been a big shot in stand-up circles for more than a decade, he is not a household name to general audiences, despite appearing on the HBO cult favorite “Mr. Show With Bob and David” in the 1990s and, more recently, on “The Sarah Silverman Program” on Comedy Central, which also showed several of his stand-up specials. “I’m known as the guy who wears the suits, because the guy named Paul with the gap in his teeth was not specific enough,” he said, referring to his fellow commentator, the less-nattily-dressed comedian Paul Scheer. Off screen, Mr. Tompkins’s humor is also more conceptual. Asked what his middle initial stands for, he said, “Fascism. It’s a family name.” (It’s actually Francis.)
But earlier this year, VH1 experimented with a three-and-a-half-minute show called “Best Day Ever,” which he hosted, and executives were pleased. (“It was almost as if we saw the future of the show,” Mr. Ackerman said.) “Best Day Ever” has also returned this week, Monday through Thursday, with Mr. Tompkins again hosting.
With the move to a single host, the look of “Best Week Ever” will change. While the talking heads were always seated in front of a colored screen, Mr. Tompkins will stand behind a piece of furniture that he termed a podo-desk (a podium-desk). “I’m already experimenting with elbow leans, with left foot versus right foot, with shifting my weight, distributing my weight,” he said. “So there’s going to be no surprises when it finally comes down to it.” His only other preparation: requesting a teleprompter.
Staff members of “Best Week Ever” are also figuring out how to work to Mr. Tompkins’s strengths. “Already we’re getting a lot better at writing with Paul’s voice in mind,” Sean Johnson, the executive producer, said. In a dry run last week he, a half-dozen other producers and Mr. Tompkins gathered in an orange conference room in VH1’s new brightly colored offices near TriBeCa to go over scripts. Their first bit involved a clip of Cloris Leachman, 82, stumbling through a number on “Dancing With the Stars.” It ended with her being wildly twirled by her partner, panting and showcasing her décolletage to the cameras.
“And in the end of days, a half-woman, half-man creature will crawl across the earth, its bosom large and its tongue agape, and ye shall know ye are a godless people,” Mr. Tompkins intoned. In a taping, he punched up this line by delivering it in the manner of an old-timey preacher.
Mr. Johnson and his crew were pleased. “I’m sure we can tackle the elderly-abuse angle next week,” he said.
#2
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I thought they recently changed it.
I would say around the beginning of this year I would watch them whenever TiVo recorded them for me. Then the switched it around and it was super annoying, like fast camera zooming in and out, flashing screens and crap (especially during the Sizzler, which alone made me turn the channel).
I ended up giving it the thumbs down and now only watch the Soup.
I would say around the beginning of this year I would watch them whenever TiVo recorded them for me. Then the switched it around and it was super annoying, like fast camera zooming in and out, flashing screens and crap (especially during the Sizzler, which alone made me turn the channel).
I ended up giving it the thumbs down and now only watch the Soup.
#10
Banned
I think this is another case of idiot bosses trying to fix something that ain't broken. People like the show because of all the comedians throwing funny bits around pop culture topics. Now is going to become a Soup rip-off. And just looking at the comments on BWE.tv, it seems that the majority of the viewers are not receptive to the change of format.
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/10/1...-503/#comments
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/10/1...-503/#comments
#11
DVD Talk Legend
Best Week Ever hasn't been funny in years and Tompkins was always one of the weaker commentators on the show.
I saw Best Week Ever Live about three years ago and it was great to see all the comedians uncensored talking about pop culture -- and it did help that Doug Benson was one of the four there.
Joel McHale > all.
I saw Best Week Ever Live about three years ago and it was great to see all the comedians uncensored talking about pop culture -- and it did help that Doug Benson was one of the four there.
Joel McHale > all.
#13
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If they don't change the format back I am not going to watch anymore. I think the show was much better without Paul F. Tompkins became the show host. Please bring it back. I know most of the viewing public will not watch and this show will be canceled. This used to be one of my favorite shows. Why fix something that isn't broken.
#14
DVD Talk Hero
I'm not even a regular watcher, but it was always something I could flip on when I was bored and I saw it on the guide.
That happened the other day and I couldn't take more than 2 minutes of it.
Atrocious.
That happened the other day and I couldn't take more than 2 minutes of it.
Atrocious.
#15
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If they don't change the format back I am not going to watch anymore. I think the show was much better without Paul F. Tompkins became the show host. Please bring it back. I know most of the viewing public will not watch and this show will be canceled. This used to be one of my favorite shows. Why fix something that isn't broken.
RIP BWE.
#17
DVD Talk Legend
I did the same, which is interesting because I thought Paul F. Tompkins was always one of the funnier contributors to the old format... but this new show is downright unwatchable.
Still totally digging The Soup tho.
#19
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Always like The Soup more...but gotta agree with BWE. I like Tompkins...but this is bad. Maybe I'll tune in some random Friday night and be blown away. Until then, I'll just watch a Forensic Files re-run instead.
#20
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Guess I'm the lone one here, but I really like the change. I was getting sick of the old format. It was short on the spot jokes that were much too hit or miss. The Talking Heads lacked a lot wit, and did just often be mean. The more scripted the show the better, and they were thankfully moving that way. I like Thompkins and he does a great job. The last show was great, the best one in a long time.
I'm a bigger fan of the Soup, anyway, and always looked at BWE as a decent side dish. It's better now though.
I'm a bigger fan of the Soup, anyway, and always looked at BWE as a decent side dish. It's better now though.
#21
Senior Member
Guess I'm the lone one here, but I really like the change. I was getting sick of the old format. It was short on the spot jokes that were much too hit or miss. The Talking Heads lacked a lot wit, and did just often be mean. The more scripted the show the better, and they were thankfully moving that way. I like Thompkins and he does a great job. The last show was great, the best one in a long time.
I'm a bigger fan of the Soup, anyway, and always looked at BWE as a decent side dish. It's better now though.
I'm a bigger fan of the Soup, anyway, and always looked at BWE as a decent side dish. It's better now though.
I agree completely, a singular voice is welcome, and PFT is one of my favorite comedians, so I'm happy with the change. The Soup is hard to beat, and I don't think this change will do it, but I'm glad they are shaking things up.
#22
Banned
Re: "Best Week Ever" on VH1 changes format - More like "The Soup"
Has anyone been watching this show since the new format started. I'm watching it right now and the show has jumped the shark badly. Is just not funny.
#25
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Re: "Best Week Ever" on VH1 changes format - More like "The Soup"
I stopped maybe 2 or 3 weeks after it premiered. Problem is, it airs so damn randomly. Its just "decides" to wants to be new some Fridays but not all. I gave up. I'd rather watch The Soup repeats or The Dish.