Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

PRIME CHOICE: Does this ring a bell?

By Terry Morrow, Scripps Howard News Service

Published July 13, 2008 at 3 p.m.

Text size  
Dave Attell

Photo by Comedy Central

Dave Attell

More Television

More stories »

Prime choice

The Gong Show * When and where: 11 p.m. Thursday, Comedy Central

Comic Dave Attell mocks himself for looking uncharacteristically trendy while sitting poolside at a ritzy hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. He's dressed in black from head to toe - jacket, T-shirt, pants and boots.

"I look like an Israeli movie producer," deadpans the bearded and balding Attell.

The stand-up comedian best known to Comedy Central viewers for his travelogue series Insomniac has a career move coming. He's hosting Comedy Central's revival of The Gong Show.

This Gong follows the same tried-and-true format of the 1970s daytime/prime-time show but runs a bit past prime time in the Mountain time zone (It's on at 10 p.m. in Eastern and Pacific zones, and Colorado gets the West Coast feed). Contestants with varying degrees of talent perform for a panel of three celebrities. The panel has the option of drumming the bad talent off the stage by banging a giant gong. If no gong sounds, the judges then score the contestants. The one with the highest score at the end of each show wins $600.

"Some of these talent shows take themselves too seriously," Attell says. "We don't." Andy Dick, Adam Carolla and Triumph the Insult Dog are among the guest judges.

"I want to do a show that's funny and where people can win something," Attell says.

(And if you want to stay up really late, it's followed immediately by a new reality-spoof show called Reality Bites Back. Hosted by Michael Ian Black, it features 10 comics in a variety of humiliating competitions. The premiere, Big Mother, sends the comics to live with each other's mothers for four days.)