As Michael Richards himself predicted, The Michael Richards Show is being slammed by critics on its debut tonight (Monday). Noting that the show had reportedly been reworked after network execs concluded that it was beset by problems, Washington Post critic Tom Shales writes today that it "is still mucho beset. Beset, bungled and besotted." Howard Rosenberg in the Los Angeles Times says that the show "has sagging letdown written all over it." Eric Mink in the New York Post gives the show "zero" stars and remarks "Michael Richards' new show doesn't seem to have a clue about comedy." Noting that NBC first sent a tape of one premiere episode to critics, then replaced it with another, Caryn James in the New York Times commented. "The series seems to be going in reverse, getting worse instead of better, as if it were trapped in the backward episode of "Seinfeld." The apparent problem is how to capitalize on the Kramer character yet create something new. Trying to have it both ways, the creators of the show seem caught in their own nightmare."

Source: Studio Briefing