ESPN's Online Series "Mayne Street" Gets 2.5M Streams, Being Compared to "The Office"

If you are a fan of shows such as "The Office" (British and American versions), the Ricky Gervais sitcom "Extras" of a couple of years ago or Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," then you will appreciate Kenny Mayne's new project called "Mayne Street." It's an ESPN digital production and totally a creation of Mayne's skewed, cynical and very funny mind. The loose plot is that the episodes, which debut each Tuesday and Friday on ESPN.com, are a fictional and digital diary of a guy (Mayne) working for a network (gee, wonder which one?). The episodes are three to five minutes long. On the first installment, Mayne is anchoring a "SportsCenter" segment and he has trouble coming up with an exit line. "Even for those of you who use this only for background during sex, thanks for watching 'SportsCenter,' " Mayne says. Scott Van Pelt is playing Mayne's co-host. Van Pelt's look of dismay is priceless. Mayne said he had proposed the idea originally to run on television. "It got put on a back burner," he said. "When my contract came back up, I proposed it again. We decided to try it online only first." The first couple of episodes have drawn an average of 2.5 million web hits. Mayne said future episodes will feature Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen and celebrity chef Bobby Flay.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/la-sp-media28-2008nov28,0,796860.story