TVSquad

The variety show format seems like a no-brainer for success - get someone with star power and surround them with a bunch of ringers and some weird people spinning plates or bending themselves into curious shapes, and voila! Instant hit, right? But there have been some spectacular failures in recent TV history. Maybe it's the fact that there are so many talent/reality shows now that a show with no "winner" or competition doesn't seem as interesting.

Somehow, despite all of that, Ellen DeGeneres has managed some success with the format, and is now on her third - Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, on TBS Saturday at 9PM.

Perhaps it's the fact that it's on TBS, which means the stakes are slightly lower than on the main networks. Or the fact that DeGeneres brings a loyal fanbase from her Ellen DeGeneres Show and her stand-up. Those would be the reasons you would look for if you were an industry executive or a media critic.

There are some big names on the bill for Ellen DeGeneres's variety show, Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, which airs June 27 on TBS. Kanye West will be a big part of it, and magician David Blaine and comedian Nick Cannon will also appear.

Even the Chicago Cubs will make an appearance, as DeGeneres tapes a segment at Wrigley Field, singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch June 16 (the rest of the show will be taped June 17 at the Chicago Theatre).

But the thing DeGeneres seems most excited about is comedian Joe Wong, whom we first wrote about in April when he made his network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. She'd love to see more comedians like Wong on television.

There is a romantic notion of how a comedian gets on a program like the Late Show with David Letterman. A talent scout walks into a crowded comedy club where a hot new talent is killing and puts them on that week. Fame and fortune ensue, and a legend is born.

The reality is, not surprisingly, much different. When comedian Joe Wong makes his network television debut tonight, it will be a five-minute appearance nearly four years in the making, stretching back to when Late Show talent coordinator and audience warm-up comic Eddie Brill first saw Wong in Boston in 2005, according to Wong. Brill thought he was funny, which put him on the radar. Wong sent in a DVD now and then, and Brill gave him feedback.

"Off and on I've been watching him do what he's been doing I guess for about three years," says Brill. "Then I started getting serious about him trying to put a set together for me that I could work on for Letterman. And I guess that's over a year ago."