Week in, week out, can you really call it the best?

It may sound unbelievable to the casual television viewer, but there was a time when the slogan of VH1 was "Music First." The station was originally created by MTV as a channel for their more mature music fans and at once carved a niche for itself as a home for classic rock and up-and-coming indie and critical favorites.

But lately, VH1 seems to have been given a make-over. The music-heralding motto has been long since abandoned and it seems to have been unofficially replaced with the more marketable "Popular Culture First." The channel that once aired music-themed programs like "Legends," "Storytellers," and "Behind the Music," has become the home of celebrity-worshipping shows like "Its Good to Be... ", "All-Access" and "ET on VH1."

The newest foray into pop-culture adulation is "Best Week Ever," a program that serves as a "roundup of everything we loved this week about pop culture." It's a show VH1.com has billed as the "child" of their popular hit "I Love the 80s." This relationship between the two shows seems plausible, but where "I Love the 80s" was a fun program that sparked an outpouring of 80s love and nostalgia, "Best Week Ever," while enjoyable to watch, seems contrived and unnecessary.

The format of "Best Week Ever" is the same as its VH1 program parent. A topic from the past week is introduced and a panel of B, C and mostly D-list celebrities, little-known comics and other cultural aficionados provide amusing and colorful commentary. On last week's show, the panel covered such captivating topics as Oscar predictions, the end of "Sex and the City," and the feud between tween queens Hillary Duff and Lindsey Lohan (the rift was sparked after it was discovered that both had dated prepubescent heartthrob wannabe Aaron Carter simultaneously), just to name a few.

In addition, the panelists are presented with certain celebrities and asked to remark on whether the person's status received an "upgrade" or "downgrade" that week. Finally, the pundits decided who indeed had the "best week ever" (this week it was ubiquitous ditz Jessica Simpson). The panelists generally provided humorous, droll and deprecating observations regarding the events (their mockery of Fox's misguided offering "Celebrity Spelling Bee" was particularly enjoyable) but their comments lacked the wistful, nostalgic tone of the "I Love the 80's" panelists and sounded too much like a stand-up comedy act.

One of the main problems with the program is that there is often not enough pop-culture fluff, emerging trends, or gossip to fill the program. Topics are often reintroduced week after week, garnering similar comments each time. Who cares what MTV VJ Kennedy thinks about Donald Trump's hair week after week, especially if it doesn't change much? In addition, many of the pop-culture stories presented and commented upon are obscure and involve people with whom only a small portion of the audience may be familiar.

The other integral issue with "Best Week Ever" is that reruns won't be interesting in the least bit after the weekend on which they air, for few people remember or care about what happened the week before in the generally trivial world of popular culture.

While "Best Week Ever" is captivating for the half an hour that it has your attention, it does not stay with you. It is a classic example of a show to watch when there is nothing on, just to pass the time, perhaps between classes, or while procrastinating. Yet to be fair, it does provide a half an hour of mindless enjoyment that is actually funny, something which few television programs can boast.