Good news for Kurt Long, co-anchor of Fox News' "comedy" program. Looks like maybe he didn't have to go changing his name afterall. The ratings are in for The 1/2 Hour News Program, and they're good. According to mediabistro's TVNewser...

The heavily-promoted premiere delivered 499,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo and 1,478,000 total viewers. The show gained about 170,000 demo and around 300,000 total viewers from its lead-in. Half the viewers immediately tuned out, giving The Line Up just 231,000 demo and 787,000 viewers at 10:30pm.

So, things are looking up for Fox's little comedy show that couldn't quite. Despite the loud sucking sound that accompanied its premiere, it looks like it will most likely get picked up permanently. But will it get better? Well, let's hope so. (Nothing's sadder than bad propaganda.) There's certainly no shortage of room for improvement.

But can it improve and keep its liberal-bashing conservative-sucking mindset intact? That's the real question. Crushed by Inertia attempted to answer the same question in regards to Fox's other sh*tty trying-to-be-cool show, Red Eye, but its findings are just as applicable here.

Now that Fox News struck comedy pyrite with The 1/2 Hour News Hour, you gotta wonder what other plans they have for the vintage Laff Trax 3000 they purchased from a Happy Days garage sale.

Wouldn't Papa Bear O'Reilly put a hurtin' on that thing? Now, thanks to some YouTube genius, you don't have to speculate.

The 1/2 Hour News Hour, part of Fox News' attempt to lure in that coveted 18-34 demographic, premiered tonight, and writers from the CC Insider were among the dozens of people watching. Let's take a look at some of the show's subject matter...

• Marion Barry
• An ACLU case from 1977
• Ed Begley, Jr.
• The Bygone Era of the Obvious Laugh Track
• "Angry Lesbians"
• Che Guevara
• Chairman Mao

In what decade did they write this show? Did they really devote the show's running gag to Ed Begley, Jr.? Really? Ed Begley, Jr.??? (For those of you under the age of 30, Ed Begley, Jr. is a character actor who used to get some press last millennium for his advocation of hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius, which is, like, doing well or something.) Did cast member Susan Yeagley steal these jokes from her husband Kevin Nealon's old Commodore 64?

In all fairness, the show did have a few decent bits, including a rather clever segment in which an expert could link any problem in the world to Global Warming in six steps or less. And they referenced a book for mentally underdeveloped children called "The Little Engine That Couldn't Quite." (Really, who doesn't have a soft spot for a retard joke?)

But so much of the rest of the show was just so helplessly out of touch and soft that it seems questionable what good it will do for anyone. Even a brief showing by brilliant alternative comedian Ann Coulter--who, for years, has managed to trick most of the country into believing that he's a vitriolic female conservative--couldn't pull the show above the level of a high school AV club produced parody.

With its resurrected jokes and lifeless delivery, the show seems unlikely to appeal to anyone except your conservative great-uncle and the completely untapped zombie demographic.

Please, if you've seen the show, give us your opinions.

While it's been well established that Fox News' 1/2 Hour News Hour cribbed its name from either/both CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes or MTV's old 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour, I've been heretofore unable to put my finger on where exactly they draw inspiration for their flat and toothless comedy stylings. Then it hit me: Not Necessarily the News. In case you forgot or (sigh) weren't born yet, here's a clip from 1987 that's worth watching if only for the retro "HBO'87" promo and the absurdly long opening credit sequence:

And check back here tomorrow night. It's unlikely that anybody is more excited than us for the premier of this incredible new show. We'll be posting our thoughts and reactions.

We're not going to speculate that Kurt McNally--the co-host of Fox News' incredibly not-terribly non-un-funny fake news comedy show, The 1/2 Hour News Hour (see previous post)--is embarrassed to be associated with his own show. No, we would never do that.

However, if we were, say, a fair and balanced 24-hour news channel, we might feel honor-bound to postulate on such possibilities given the fact that he changed his name for the show. His actual professional name is Kurt Long.

While many comedians (including Jon Stewart) change their names for professional reasons, Kurt McNally (or Long or "gassy" or whatever) has been Kurt Long at practically every point in his career until now.

IMDB's page for Kurt McNally has one credit listed, while its page for Kurt Long has eight (one of which is This Just In, a working title for The 1/2 Hour News Hour). And Kurt Long's own resume lists 6 movies, 13 TV shows and 5 theater credits. Clearly the guy is used to using Long as a professional name.

If you've been paying attention for the past couple days, we've been making fun of Fox News' "The 1/2 News Hour". Every day. And as long as it's around, we're never, ever going to stop.

So imagine our surprise when we visited the Daily Show site on comedycentral.com this morning...

Meet Joel Surnow, seen here sporting a soul patch and defending the necessity of torture with Samwise Gamgee on Fox News. Joel is a successful producer of "24", the hit series starring Keifer Sutherland. He's such a huge proponent of violating the Geneva Conventions that the Dean of West Point paid a trip to tell the "24" team to tone it down a bit.

So what else is going in with Joel, other than harboring dreams of making a pro-Joseph McCarthy movie? Why, he's also producing "The 1/2 Hour News Hour," a show that's turning out to be a giant stinking turd of an excuse for political satire. Don't believe us? Check out this clip of Rush Limbaugh as the President and Ann Coulter as VP. 

Why even undertake such a venture? We'll let Joel explain it in his own words to that arbiter of comedy, TVGuide:

TVGuide.com: Why do you think there needs to be a conservative version of The Daily Show?

Joel Surnow: One of the things you always look to in the TV-content business is what's not out there. One of the things that's