The 6th season of Last Comic Standing began airing in May 2008. This competitive reality show on NBC was hosted by Bill Bellamy (continuing from season five) and a new co-host, Fearne Cotton. The contest was won by Iliza Shlesinger from Dallas, Texas.
Auditions were held in the following cities in early 2008, with the listed comics advancing to the semi-finals:
| Date | City | Club | Judges | Contestants | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 29 | Los Angeles | The Improv | Oscar Nuñez and Angela Kinsey of The Office | Erin Foley, Ron G., Eddie Pepitone, and Jackie Kashian | |
| February 7–8 | New York | Gotham Comedy Club | Steve Schirripa and Richard Belzer | Louis Ramey, God's Pottery, Stone & Stone, Dan Naturman, Esther Ku, Aparna Nancherla, and Bella Goth | |
| February 14 | Toronto, Ontario | Yuk Yuk's | Dave Foley and Richard Kind | Sean Cullen and Winston Spear | |
| February 19 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Acme Comedy Club | Brian Baumgartner and Kate Flannery of The Office | Pete Lee, Dan Cummins and John Evans | |
| February 22 | Houston, Texas | Houston Improv. | Neil Flynn and Alfonso Ribeiro | Bob Biggerstaff and Andi Smith | |
| February 26 | Tempe, Arizona | Tempe Improv. | Fred Willard and Kathy Najimy | Marcus, Phil Palisoul, and Adam Hunter | |
| February 29 | San Francisco, California | Cobb's Comedy Club | Joshua Gomez and French Stewart | Drennon Davis, Jeff Dye, The Meehan Brothers, and Iliza Shlesinger | |
| March 3 | Nashville, Tennessee | Zanies | George Wendt and John Ratzenberger of Cheers | Heath Hyche, Taylor Mason, Erin Jackson, Mary Mack, and Dale Jones | |
| Miami, Florida | Lonny Ross and Keith Powell | Shazia Mirza (UK), Jim Tavare (UK), Paul Foot (UK), Lioz Shem Tov (Israel), and Papa CJ (India) |
Mark Breslin, owner of Yuk Yuk's comedy clubs, which hosted the Toronto audition for season 6, described the audition process. He explained that while anyone who wanted to could wait in line to audition, most would be dismissed after only one joke. Top local agents were given a number of specific call times for their clients. The first round of auditions were for a producer early in the morning, and those that were chosen came back for the celebrity judges in the afternoon. Breslin also confirmed that, while only two were shown advancing in the final broadcast, four comics had been initially chosen to advance to the finals.[1] Brian Lazanik, one of the two finalists who did not end up at the Vegas finals, has said that he was also chosen as a finalist in season 5's Toronto auditions, but was similarly cut. Producers for the show called his agent, urging him to try out again for season 6.[2] [3]
In addition to the scheduled auditions, host Bill Bellamy visited several clubs in other U.S. cities during the audition period, with the comedians apparently not knowing they were secretly being judged for the show. At the end of the show, Bellamy would take the stage and announce who would be invited to compete at one of the scheduled auditions for a spot in the semi-finals. Some of these visits included February 11 at The Punchline in Atlanta, Georgia, and February 16 at The Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, Michigan. Chosen comics from these two sessions were flown to New York and Minneapolis respectively for those auditions.
The semi-final round was held at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas from March 28–30, 2008. From there, 12 were selected to move into the house as finalists, as had been done in previous seasons. The semi-finalists were divided into two groups, with five comics chosen from the first and seven from the second group of twelve.
| Comics | Head-to-head | Public Elimination | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | |
| Iliza Shlesinger | WIN | WIN | IN | SAFE | LCS |
| Marcus | IN | IN | SAFE | IN | OUT |
| Jeff Dye | IN | SAFE | IN | IN | OUT |
| Jim Tavare | SAFE | IN | IN | IN | OUT |
| Louis Ramey | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT |
| Sean Cullen | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Adam Hunter | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Ron G. | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Papa CJ | IN | OUT | |||
| Paul Foot | IN | OUT | |||
| Esther Ku | OUT | ||||
| God's Pottery | OUT | ||||
LCS means the comic was the last comic standing
SAFE means the comic won the immunity challenge
WIN means the comic participated and won the head-to-head showdown
OUT means the comic lost in the head-to-head showdown or by viewer voting and was eliminated
IN means the comic advanced to another episode
The first two head-to-head challenges went similarly to previous seasons. Each finalist declared "I know I'm funnier than...", and named another comic. The comic who received the most votes in this manner was forced to compete at the next showdown. As with previous two seasons, the first elimination pitted three comics in a standup showdown, with the audience voting for their favorite performance, and the winner of the vote being the only one of the three to remain on the show. The comic voted to perform got to choose their two opponents; however, unlike past seasons, the comic could choose any of their fellow comics, and not just those who had voted for them. This rendered moot a strategy of not voting for the likely voting target in order to not get subsequently chosen by them to perform. It also eliminated the common situation in which only two comics had voted for the loser, forcing those to perform. As in previous seasons, an immunity challenge took place before each vote, with the winner able to vote, but not liable to be voted for.
For the third challenge, a twist was announced to the contestants after the immunity challenge: All of the remaining contestants would have to perform, with the home audience voting for the winners; this is essentially the same as the normal public elimination rounds from past seasons, except that immunity was in play for one contestant. The highest vote-getters in the group advanced to the Las Vegas final performances.
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
The Final 5 comics entered a nationwide tour, hosted by Louis Ramey. Each comedian performs for about 25 minutes.