Actor/comedian Jay Mohr is trying to do good. He's also trying to do television. And sometimes, those two things just don't mix.

Mohr is the host and one of the executive producers of the NBC series "Last Comic Standing," which launches its second season with a two-hour episode on Tuesday, June 8. In its first season last summer, the show scoured the nation for unknown comics, then sequestered 10 of them in a house together and forced them to compete in challenges and in head-to-head comedy showdowns in front of live voting audiences.

In the end, America voted by telephone and over the Internet and chose the ultimate winner -- Vietnam-born Dat Phan. While Phan is headlining clubs and had a Comedy Central special, he hasn't exactly become a comedy shooting star.

"Uh, what happens to shooting stars?" Mohr asks. "They go away."

Considering where Phan started, though, Mohr still thinks "Last Comic Standing" accomplished something worthwhile.

"I learned that there are television shows you can produce where what you're doing is actually noble, and it's not a money grab. When you see people like Dat Phan, love him or hate him, the fact is he was literally living under a desk until he tried out for the show. That's a big deal. You're really helping people."

Many people watching the show thought the ultimate second-place finisher, hefty comic Ralphie May, would win -- and that includes Mohr.

"It was shocking to all of us. We all thought Ralphie would win in a landslide. If they had left Dat alone, he probably would have been out in week three, but they picked on him so much that they made bored housewives rally around him.

"Like, my Aunt Sally teaches special ed in New Jersey, and I said, 'Who'd you vote for?' She said, 'You know me, I don't like when kids get picked on, so I voted for that kid, Dat Phan, three times.'

"But Ralphie May has a DVD out. He filmed a lot of comedy in Saddam's palace in Iraq. He took a leak in Saddam's pool. He said, 'You kinda have to,' and I agree with him. Ralphie's a funny, man, he's a powerhouse.' "

For season two, new executive producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz ("Project Greenlight") were brought in, many restrictions on comics' backgrounds were relaxed, and talent scouts Bob Read and Ross Mark went back on the road. It all culminated in a semifinal round taped in Las Vegas in late February, with 20 hopefuls appearing in front of celebrity judges, including Drew Carey, Brett Butler and Anthony Clark.

Controversy erupted when the final list of 10 chosen to live in the house didn't quite jibe with the judges' choices. In particular, the judges saw their favorite contestant was not on the list, while one they didn't like, was.

Carey voiced his concerns to the Hollywood Reporter, calling the contest "crooked and dishonest." On her official Web site, Butler said, "As panel judges, we can say that (a) we were both surprised and disappointed at the results, and (b) we had NOTHING to do with them."

It was at this point that Mohr's noble ambitions for his show ran straight into the realities of casting a reality series.

"There's not a comic alive," Mohr says, "that got ahead without somebody helping them, so this is just doing that at a network level. Unfortunately, a network has to be involved, because they have all the stations. The network does have discretion, and they can have people they want on the show that maybe didn't deliver that night. We're lucky it's two out of 10 and not 10 out of 10.

"The first thing they do is collect the judge's votes and say, 'OK, who's on all four judges' lists?' And those people go up on the board. Then they say, 'Who's on three out of four?' And do it that way. Then you're left with maybe three slots, and the show-runners we hired have discretion to put in who they see fit.

"Drew and Brett looked at me when I was reading the names off, like, 'How could you?' And I remember looking back at them, trying telepathy to say, 'It's the network. I'm not allowed in the room. It's the network. Thanks for coming.'"

Although neither Mohr nor executive producer Barry Katz (Mohr's manager, who also manages one of the contestants) had any say in the final 10, Mohr did have a personal stake in the outcome.

"I had one person that, if they weren't on the list, I wouldn't have read the announcement, but he made the list. I was very happy that the person I felt deserved it the most, that I felt would be a hard sell -- I would have stood on my head for that person -- and that person made it. So as far as choosing your battles, I kind of shrugged.

"We have four that are absolute headliners. We have three that are sort of middle acts. Then there are two that are up-and-comers finding their way. Then there's one that is absolutely indescribable. Fantastic. If Captain Caveman and Steven Wright had a child ... ."

After the final 10 is set, Mohr says the network's influence drops to "Zero. The comics go, do standup against each other, and an audience votes in a theater using an electronic keypad. The results are in, and somebody leaves. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it."

As far as the final vote, Mohr says to America, put up or shut up. "People would say, `What happened to Ralphie, man? How come Ralphie didn't win?' I would ask them, 'Did you vote?' 'No.' 'Then what the hell are you complaining about?' There was only six percent separating the two of them, so if everyone who complained to me voted, it would have been a wipeout."