After reading all these hateful comments, I feel compelled to make a real case for Kings County. I have long disliked the weekend programming on WNYC, because it seemed so, well, geriatric. So many hours of Car Talk, Prarie Home, Whadya Know, and (kill me) Jonathan Schwartz. The change in line up over the summer that has brought in more programming, including Kings County has been a really pleasant one though. Ok, so clearly this show isn't for everyone, but it definitely skews younger than a lot of the other "variety" shows of which there are *plenty*.

I think this show could pull in a different demographic, and hope it's given the chance. I laugh a lot, and am really not sure why people are so up in arms.

Listening to the third show, but can't register a comment there while it's in process, I guess. I'm sorry, but I think this show is terrible. Comic was completely unsurprising and not funny. Kristen's voice (she's Kurt Anderson's side kick, I guess) is so annoying I can't imagine how anyone thought she should have this job. Can't think of any other show on Public Radio I've had so instant a negative reaction to.

Tonight, 7/22, was the first time I tuned in to "Kings County." It's also the last. Neither Kristen Schall nor Jessi Klein are remotely funny. Screaming and beginning every sentence with "I was like" or "my parents are like" every 30 seconds fills air time with nothing of substance. NPR's audience expects better, not more of the same low "humor" found on commercial radio and tv. If it's a humor show, we want funny, not stupid. This show is beneath our intelligence.

Oooo, this is annoying and not fun.

Thank goodness for WKCR in this timeslot and the one following.

Boooooo

I have heard the show twice now - I think that it has not found its voice yet. For some reason I find myself wanting it to succeed, although I don't actually like the show. The guests have been by and large entertaining but the writing is uneven. It is understandable that WNYC is trying to court a new audience, but much of the humour seems targeted not to the "hip" Brooklyn demographic, but rather to those who are unfamiliar with the clichés - maybe some folks who just moved into one of those dreadful waterfront condos. The writing to really trying too hard to connect to a certain "hip" sensibility, which is tricky to define but usually involves a near lethal dose of irony, self importance, pretension, and cruel humour. The show reminds me a little of a restaurant (that probably has tasty dishes to offer) which opens up in a "hip" neighborhood, tries to connect, but lacks the nuanced understanding of its snotty demographic and then becomes a target of hipster scorn on Yelp.com. If there is one thing that hipsters detest it's the perceived "inauthentic" (clearly one of many unfortunate ironies!)

I think the show needs to more organically play off the strength of the host (genial) and the strengths of the guests. Anderson is charming but not naturally funny - he really needs a solid humorist to anchor the show and better material to work with. Brooklyn needs to be expressed as a sensibility, not as the explicit subject matter for tired jokes...

WNYC please stop trying so hard.

This show is the entertainment equivalent of exactly nothing. Hipsters are boring - even to hipsters themselves. They are exponentially boring to people outside of that realm. If there has to be a self-congratulatory show about Brooklyn, don't put it on the radio. PS - Brooklyn isn't even cool any more.

ALSO, Kurt Anderson (who I love on Studio 360) is a miserable live host - bad voice (strained) and a limited sense of humor. Stop playing Boy From Kansas.

Lucy Sexton is insufferable. If I met her at party, I'd make an excuse to leave early. And hearing her tell a story about how she can talk on and on as a QTV sales person is absolute torture. And that's when I turned off the show.

This show had the uncanny ability to distill everything that is unlikeable about Brooklyn (e.g. yuppie hipsters, half-baked pseudo artists to name a couple) into one convenient little scorn-worthy package. Nice work, Kurt!

Could this show be even more un-entertaining? Lucy Sexton is pretty annoying; what were they thinking having her co-host? That news cast thing they opened with wasn't at all funny. I've lived in Brooklyn for 10 years and I can't believe that this is the program that supposed to "represent" Kings County.

Oh dear.. sounds like middle class America trying to make the new yuppie/hipsters (who are not really that hip) into some kind of homogenized Urban home Companion.

With that wooly waft of the NPR sweater. how crushingly boring...

The idea of the erudite and soulful Kurt Anderson taking on a kind of Garrison Keiloresque persona on a show from Brooklyn certainly has merit. And the fact that on the few shows that have aired he maintains a shred of dignity and wit is all about him and nothing to do with his co-hosts, comedians and producers. Are they specifically aiming this at 17 year olds? if so, that's wonderful and to be applauded, but Kurt or someone needs to scour Kings County with more diligence and find more thoughtful expressions of the youthful zeitgeist.

I enjoyed it. I hope it sticks. I would like to attend sometime.

Like some of NPR's weekend comedy shows, such as "Whadda-ya know?", which make the weekend very quiet and boring because I have to turn the radio off when they come on, "King's County" is crap. It doesn't represent Brooklyn at all and shows America at its worst--stimulated only by crude and stupid, often sexual, quips (the one about "National Pubic Radio" being the lowest I've ever heard your station go). The audience whistling and shouting about nothing portrays us as the yahoos we sometimes are and I wish we weren't. Maybe some listeners like to hear standard broadcasters let their hair down, but I won't be able to forget Kurt Anderson's voice cranking up the audience now when I hear him elsewhere. Please kill or totally revamp this show. Then as an otherwise faithful WNYC listener,I might "never turn it off."

My husband is from Brooklyn. (I am a NY native but not Brooklyn)
He was a NYCity Public Schools Principal.
We lived in Park Slope.

What this show has to do with Brooklyn is a mystery. Or do you mean Kings County, California?

We laughed a little.

lucy sexton's monologue about home shopping host > florent was awesome!

Uncomfortable to listen to forced banter and semi drunk audience. What's humurous when live with liquor does not equal good radio.

Kurt Andersen is the Garrison Keillor of Brooklyn, and no, that's not meant as a compliment. I've lived in Brooklyn for quite a while, and have never eaten "artisinal mayonnaise"; could we please put to rest the stupid meme that Brooklyn is nothing but hipsters, writers, and militant locavores? This show has nothing to do with Brooklyn (except for a very small, but disproportionately annoying segment of the Brooklyn population) and is little more than a collection of tired cliches. I mostly enjoy Studio 360, but seriously, Kurt, don't quit your day job.

I agree with some of the other comments, I have no idea what Kings County has to do with Brooklyn. Who is this show for, anyway? Kurt already has Studio 360---a decent show. He's spreading himself a little thin.

Used to live in Brooklyn many years ago. Moved just before it got super expensive. Maybe that's the excitement: it's turning into another Manhattan. Hence the show, which excludes the other voices which exist--you know, the voices who don't live in hipsterland.

Sorry, didn't enjoy the show. But keep working on it, maybe it'll capture a true voice of Brooklyn (at least the one I remember), which may not matter at this point...

Too much like Prairie Home Companion. Drop any style adopted from that old tired show, especially corny jokes. Potential for KC is good if you make it original and fresh.

Title has a real disconnect from the actual borough. Content is so-so. And it is way too self congratulatory as mentioned in another post.

Perhaps the tag line should be: All similarities to Brooklyn are incidental.

seemed like a cross between a live WTF & Praire Home Companion. But not as strong as either. And perhaps, a bit to precious. The "brooklyn is so awesome" thing is getting old. I do love brooklyn, but the self reference and self-congratulatory nature of the whole thing is just annoying and boastful.

weak. could have been a whole lot better. do these people actually live here? doesn't sound like it.

My ideas for making this show connect to its audience are listed below:
-feature a couple of kids who are gifted at music- vocal, violin, piano guitar a sweet pre adolescence girl's band would connect the audience.
- feature store owners,
-local librarians,
-science geeks,
-small jazz club owners.
- seniors who are filled with stories
- a sing - a - long - a song about Brooklyn
- a Brooklyn slogan contest or song or poem
- feature a game called, "Guess Brooklyn" - facts about Brooklyn's history
- feature a Brooklyn staple, or famous person
- feature a choir, or religious group that is doing something for the community

Real Brooklyn folks. Make the show sweet. To me that's what I think of about Brooklyn. Not a focus on Kurt Andersen and Lucy Sexton - They don't have the spirit of Brooklyn. They also need an older, true Brooklynite They both need to soak up the Brooklyn culture and stop talking so much. They should find true Brooklyn folks and feature them.
No long jokes that don't relate to Brooklyn
No naked jokes
No obscure music
I want sweet, simple, heart felt, true radio about Brooklyn

I liked the show. Keep them coming.

Loved it! Lucy Sexton is fantastic and the show seems very fresh. Louis C.K. would be a great guest. I'm a WNYC full time addict and I hope it stays on the air.

Nice try. Miserable results. Sorry.

Frankly I think the concept and show are awful...please go back to previous programming...PLEASE !

More Lucy.

Loved it tonight!!!
Fantastic show and concept.