Is this the worst TV show ever made?

Is Viva Laughlin the worst TV show ever made? That's a big call, but the program is certainly one of the most ill-conceived.

The first big project from Hugh Jackman's production company, Seed, has been attracting all the wrong kind of headlines since premiering in the US last week.

It has received extremely poor reviews and was cancelled after just two episodes by network CBS, saying low ratings were to blame.

It was hardly the buzz Nine was looking for before Monday night's Australian premiere.

Based on the six-part BBC series Blackpool, which aired on the ABC in 2005, it follows Ripley Holden's quest to open a casino.

Viewers might have been surprised to find Holden is not played by Jackman but by the British actor Lloyd Owen, a name conspicuously absent from Nine's publicity.

Jackman's minor role is as a rival casino owner.

The other thing missing from Nine's publicity was the dreaded M-word: musical. As in Blackpool, the characters break into song. However, they do so with an astonishing lack of conviction.

Like very bad karaoke, they warble along apologetically as the original songs play loudly in the background.

Owen's casting is inexplicable. Not only is his American accent poor, he has a very ordinary singing voice. And the less said about Melanie Griffith's performance the better.

How did the US network CBS get this so wrong?

One can only imagine its executives were looking for something quirky, in keeping with the trend for offbeat dramas (think Heroes, Ugly Betty, Life, Desperate Housewives).

But they clearly lacked the courage of their convictions. Viva Laughlin has the fingerprints of nervous network executives all over it.

In recent articles, those involved with the show played down its musical aspect. Their embarrassment flows through to the performances. If you're going to try something different, you've got to commit to it.

In Blackpool the songs were attacked with such spirit that you were swept along for the ride. Here, they have no context. They seem to belong to an entirely different show and the actors seem relieved when they're over.

Australia's Channel Nine just can't take a trick. It's stuck with this - a bad episode of Las Vegas, with songs.

Nine's best hope last night was that viewers tuned in out of morbid curiosity. You have to work with what you've got and "the worst show on TV" is at least a talking point.

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Here's what the critics have to say:

Viva Laughlin ... may well be the worst new show of the season, but is it the worst show in the history of television?
-The New York Times

Let us count the number of ways it bombs.
-Newsday.com

Laughlin is merely cheap and leaden, like a deflated balloon.
-Film.com

Weep ... for Jackman's reputation, for all of us who have spent an hour gawking at a train wreck.
-PopMatters

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Watch a video clip from Viva Laughlin below:

Feedback:

The absolute worst TV show ever made is screening currently on Prime Television on Mondays at 9.30pm. It is called Welcome to Paradise and is supposed to be a sitcom. The 'humour' seems to have been channelled frm the 1970's, the actors are as wooden as a bed leg and the set ... my God, the set ... like something out of a school panto. Welcome to Paradise is astonishingly awful. And it's made in New Zealand.
-Philip Mora

The show Viva Laughlin certaily looks terrible. However even this piece of ill-conceived nonsense could not possibly steal the title of worlds worst show from our own Shortland Street which is by far and away the worst attempt at television drama ever bought to the small screen. Nothing could match the fourth rate acting and incredibly poor plots this show vomits onto NZ screens on a regular basis. The fact that this putrid garbage is still running is a sad reflection on NZ society and would suggest that Viva Laughlin may well be heralded in NZ as one of the greatest shows ever made.
-Troy Kerr

- Sydney Morning Herald