Critics slam
NBC's Seinfeld reality show
Eviscerate 'Marriage Ref' as unfunny and a blight
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 1, 2010
Popshizle.com's headline may have said it all: "Jerry Seinfeld's new show almost cancels out 'Seinfeld.'"
Seinfeld's highly publicized return to primetime last night likely got huge ratings, leading out of the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
But "The Marriage Ref," the new reality show produced by Seinfeld in which celebrities weigh in on the everyday woes of married couples, was eviscerated in the Twitterswphere by TV critics and viewers alike, suggesting that the network's major post-"Jay Leno Show" 10 p.m. tentpole could be a bust.
The tweets were fast and, quite literally, furious last night as the 10:30 p.m. special preview got underway.
Twittered one poster, "FYI The Marriage Ref is the worst show that I have ever seen and that even includes Cop Rock."
Another wondered, "Would you rather watch dolphins get slaughtered, or would you rather sit through a second episode of The Marriage Ref?"
Another wondered if the overly boisterous studio audience was being forced to laugh at gunpoint.
One poster even started a hashtag entitled "NBChateshumanity."
Of course, there were some tweeters who enjoyed the show, predicting that NBC had a new hit and saying it was a funny show.
But TV critics, who were not sent advance screeners of the program, were nearly universal in their dissing of it this morning.
"After seeing the 'special sneak preview' of 'The Marriage Ref' Sunday night, I am thinking maybe Jay Leno in prime time wasn't such a bad idea after all," writes the Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik. "If this is NBC's idea of how to win viewers back at 10 p.m., heaven help the poor affiliates like WBAL-TV that have to try and find an audience for their late newscasts on the heels of it."
"Not only was 'The Marriage Ref' not nearly funny enough to justify the constant chortling from the celebrity panelists, host Tom Papa and the studio audience (though I will acknowledge that jokes always seem much funnier in person than they do on TV), but there was this undercurrent of contempt for the couples being judged that made the whole affair feel particularly unpleasant," writes the Newark Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall.
Of course, NBC may have also given "Ref" one strike to start with its decision to break away from the still-airing closing ceremony of these hugely popular Olympic Games at 10:30 in order to show "Ref's" premiere in its entirety before 11 p.m.
Many tweeters, newspaper blogs and others criticized the self-serving decision, noting that the network did not even make the live coverage available on one of its sister cable networks, though it did promise to air them on tape delay after the local news.
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