View Comments

Here are some of the reviews of the first episode of ‘The Marriage Ref’:

EW:
…there was an undeniable spontaneity not only among the premiere’s guest judges — Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, and Seinfeld — but also during the taped segments featuring the couples who provided the arguments. Granted, my defenses were weakened by the mind-blowing Olympics finale that included William Shatner spouting Dadaist poetry, but I thought The Marriage Ref was silly fun.
Hosted by Tom Papa, an excellent stand-up comic (he killed on a recent David Letterman), The Marriage Ref is just what you’ve seen in the ads. We and the judges watched tape of a couple’s outlandish argument, and Papa referees the dispute by concluding, “I’m ready to make the call!”

NY Times:
A simple search of Twitter Sunday night yielded thousands of comments about the show. Some of the comments were upbeat, calling the show “hilarious,” but many more, it seemed, were savagely critical. Television critics were virtually united in their disapproval. “Divorce papers have been filed. West Coasters, you’ve been warned,” wrote Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly.
But the Twitter buzz during the East Coast preview was so bad that Daniel Fienberg of HitFix said “it wouldn’t surprise me if NBC airs an ‘Office’ repeat at 10:30 PT,” shorthand for Pacific time.

Others joked about bringing Mr. Leno back to prime time.

NY Daily News:
Even without a replay, the consensus call on Jerry Seinfeld’s new “Marriage Ref” so far is, “Yer out.”

That’s not what struggling NBC wants to hear about the long-awaited new Seinfeld project on which it spent its most valuable promotion slot, the half-hour after the Olympics Sunday.

But then, “The Marriage Ref” didn’t give NBC much to hang its hype on. It turned out to be a flimsy “reality” show in which celebrities milk a silly videotaped argument between a civilian couple for way more jokes than it deserves and then pick a “winner.”

Time called it “the most God-awful mishmash of a comedy-variety show.” Long-time Hartford Courant critic Roger Catlin said “absolutely nothing funny happened.” Greg Evans of the Huffington Post said Seinfeld “owes us nothing and delivered in spades.”

View Comments

The strong Olympics performance fueled a great premiere number for “The Marriage Ref.” Sunday’s opener pulled a 4.8 rating with 14.5 million viewers, enough to easily win the 10:30-11PM half hour.