X out of 10

As a correspondent for The Daily Show, Rob Corddry is goofy, clueless, and generally hilarious; his new vehicle, a vacuous mid-season sitcom called The Winner, has quite a bit of the first two, but a distinct lack of the latter.

Within the first few seconds of the series premiere, two questions sprang quickly to mind: first, which idiot executive gave this pile o’ schlock the green light? and second, is Rob Corddry intentionally committing career suicide? The second question can also apply to the show’s executive producer, Seth McFarlane, who created a moderately successful cartoon called Family Guy (you may have heard of it).

In the show, Glen Abbot (Corddry) is a thirty-something loser who lives with his parents, has never gotten laid, and whose best friend is a kid one-third his age. Through a series of fortunate events, he becomes the richest man in America. Normally this would be quite an impressive feat, but in this case it’s hard to give less of a shit about Corddry’s moronic, borderline-pedophile character.

The worst part about this show is that, while watching it, you get the feeling that it was focus grouped in front of a group of chimpanzees with Down’s Syndrome. After all, how else can you explain the ridiculously over-the-top laugh track, which (according to Wikipedia) is played 61 times (!) before the first commercial break. Wow—television has reached a new low.

X = 0: This show will make you dumber, and may cause allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, erectile dysfunction, and utter loss of faith in humanity. Avoid contact at all costs.