Where Are They Now? The Original Pop Pundits of <em>Best Week Ever</em>

At the end of April television network VH1 announced it would be canceling its recent reboot of the once-perennial favorite Best Week Ever, likely sealing the franchise's fate forever. Kinda sad, really, when you consider that Best Week Ever once served as a great capper on the week, best paired up by DVR with E!'s The Soup to supplement the latter's television wheelhouse with celebrity gossip, news from the movies and riffs on the music industry and its artists. In some ways, Best Week Ever was like a fantastically entertaining comment section for the news before comment sections really became a thing (though still, today, none of them are fantastically entertaining). For a network which once made "cutting away to montages of people talking about things" an entire basis for a network -- I'm sure we all remember I Love the 80's, I Love the 90's, I Love the 70's and countless other talking head VH1 pop specials -- Best Week Ever fit, and it fit well. It was a solid entry for the network in its absolute heyday, supplemented by amazing entertainment like Rock of Love Bus, Flavor of Love, Real Chance at Love and I Love Money during the week and skewering it all on Friday nights. It also introduced us to a lot of comic commenters who've gone on to do quite well for themselves. Remember those original guys? Solid crew. Let's see what happened to them. Paul F. Tompkins Tompkins was a well-regarded comic from Philly on the L.A. scene when he landed BWE, having already been an ensemble performer on Bob Odenkirk and David Cross' Mr. Show and hosting storytelling/comedy evenings at Los Angeles' trendy comic and music club Largo. He actually hosted the show under the name Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins for a short time before the program was canceled. Where to find him now: A well-haberdashed darling of the comedy scene, Tompkins is a regular guest on podcasts like Comedy Bang! Bang! and Who Charted?, among others, and still often hosts  The Paul F. Tompkins Show at Largo in L.A. and hosts the talk show No You Shut Up! on a television network called Fusion, which I can't find on my cable lineup but would like to see. Chuck Nice Hailing from Philadelphia radio and a show on QVC2 when he got the BWE gig, Chuck Nice was known as the host of Best Week Ever's segment The Sizzler, which focused on celebrity gossip. Where to Find Him Now: Nice is a frequent contributor to MSNBC's Morning Joe and The Today Show as a panel of men who tell women things about men. I guess that's a pretty good gig. I don't know. He has a website called www.chucknice.com, which seems to be under construction and which spells the word "comedian" incorrectly. John Mulaney Regularly appeared later in the original Best Week Ever run, known for his very dry and deadpan punchlines and incredulous responses to pop culture stories. Where You Can Find Him Now:  Mulaney perhaps has turned the gig into the most lucrative post-BWE career as a writer for Saturday Night Live, where he famously created Bill Hader's character Stefon. These days Mulaney can be seen on Netflix in his comedy special New In Town and in an upcoming FOX sitcom Mulaney, which our own Richmond Bramblet mentioned here yesterday. Melissa Rauch Melissa Rauch's coy demeanor and coquettish delivery painted her as the darling little sister of the Best Week Ever family, even though her jokes were often some of the most biting. Where You Can Find Her Now: Playing the coy and coquettish Bernadette Wolowitz on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, which has taken over the planet. Don't worry about Melissa's well-being; she's likely made enough to buy VH1 on Big Bang royalty checks alone. Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, during their time at Best Week Ever, were already comedy team partners (along with a yet-to-blow-up Aziz Ansari) for Human Giant, a sketch show over on VH1 sister channel MTV. They regularly took the absurdist approach toward pop culture. Where You Can Find Them Now: All over the place. Scheer is a cast member on FX's The League as well as Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV and hosts a great podcast skewering terrible movies called How Did This Get Made? Huebel has popped up in comedies like I Love You, Man and Parks & Recreation and currently stars in Adult Swim's Children's Hospital. Jessica St. Clair With Upright Citizen's Brigade training, Jessica St. Clair's snark made her an beloved featured player on Best Week Ever, often focusing on celebrity news. Where You Can Find Her Now: In addition to being the television spokeswoman for national clothing chain Marshall's, St. Clair also is currently on Comedy Central's well-received Review and just premiered the sitcom Playing House with comedy partner Lennon Parham on the USA Network last week. Doug Benson Benson's perpetually stoned persona made him a BWE favorite in segments like "Doug Benson: Pop Culture Bachelor" and "TSI: Trailer Scene Investigator." Where You Can Find Him Now: After Best Week Ever had already been on the air three years, Benson appeared on Last Comic Standing's season 5 and these days can still be found touring as well as hosting the podcast Doug Loves Movies and The Benson Interruption. Nick Kroll Nick Kroll's straight, intellectual commentary made him a fan favorite on Best Week Ever before he went quiet for a few years after cancellation and returned onto the scene with a bang. Where You Can Find Him Now: Kroll hosts Comedy Central's sketch comedy show The Kroll Show as well as popping up as morning zoo anchor The Douche on NBC's Parks & Recreation. He's also dating Amy Poehler. So he's doing alright. Adam Winer Though an adult, Adam Winer came off as the world's most excited and funny fifteen year-old on Best Week Ever with his baby face and "I can't believe this!" attitude. Where You Can Find Him Now: Adam is currently the editorial director at the Fuse Network, which means he's paying it forward by bringing us things like Billy On The Street, for which we all owe him a debt of thanks.