Before dozens of viewers across Canada (and, in the US, just me) tonight, Megan McDowell was chosen The Second City's Next Comedy Legend

...on the reality series of the same name.

This final episode was better than the show's been in weeks, and if you've been following this series of posts, you can probably guess why I think so: Because we, in the audience, actually got more of a chance to evaluate the would-be "legends" in performance. At first, though, this too was grim.

For maybe the first quarter/first third of the show, I was envisioning typing comments like:

Comedy is dead.

And these people killed it.

Two And A Half Men made it sick, but these people killed it.

But, after a while, they started to live up to...well, not to the title "legend." That's a ridiculously tall yardstick. But, if this show's title had been...

Second City's Next Comic/Actor, Who With About 10 More Years Of Training And Performance Experience, You Could Conceivably See Becoming Outstanding!

...well then that, that they lived up to nicely.

All three finalists really made me laugh quite a few times and I'd have been as happy as not to see any of them win.

Even Ian McIntyre, who if I haven't mentioned him before it's because if he's done anything noteworthy, damned if they showed it to us.

I liked Kayla Lorette from the beginning and held to that pretty steady. Last week had me wavering, but as I keep feeling compelled to qualify, I blame the show at least as much as her (or any contestant) for that. And probably more.

As Dave Thomas said in his little judge's "summation" tonight, Lorette's incredibly likable onstage, and that can be very valuable.

I had a feeling the fix was in for McDowell, though. Just based on the incredibly scientific observation that more people have found this blog searching for her name in recent weeks than any of the others. I think so, anyway-I didn't go so far as to actually count or anything,

BTW, side note to any of the cast-members who may have found this blog by Yahoo! searching themselves (or otherwise), as I suspect: If you were unable or unwilling to say anything in comments till the winner was announced...I hope you'll say "good day, eh?" now.

Back to McDowell: You have to admit it's a great story: Inexperienced, elfin woman tries out for improv reality show; lasts to become the winner. I have a feeling it's that which put her over the top, and not that she did that much of a better job than McIntyre, or especially Lorette.

But, somebody had to be picked the winner, and based on the (I'll say it one last time) incredibly limited exposure I had to each of them as performers, she was as good a choice as any.

I only hope that if Second City tries something like this again, they learn from their mistakes, that for too much of this "season" made the show about as fun as being stuck in traffic.