Is '100 Questions' funny? Don't ask

THE SHOW "100 Questions"

WHEN | WHERE Thursday night at 9:30 on NBC/4

WHAT IT'S ABOUT This sitcom centers on Charlotte Payne (Sophie Winkleman), one of five friends living in New York. The show's structure is a bit like "How I Met Your Mother" with the debut episode beginning with Charlotte meeting a dating counselor (Michael Benjamin Washington), who asks her to answer 100 questions, one at the start of each episode. He suggests that in the end, she'll find a soul mate. She hesitates.

"When your dad has four ex-soul mates and your mom has three, it does make you question the whole concept," Charlotte says.

The first question takes Charlotte back to why she's using a dating service. At a Yankees game, Rick (guest star Joe Manganiello), the guy she's been dating for three months, proposes marriage. Charlotte says no. The proposal is broadcast on the stadium's JumboTron, and then the diss gets posted to YouTube, and Charlotte acquires a nasty nickname, "the Yankee (rhymes-with-witch)." Her friends rally around and play assorted games, while the guys challenge one another to come up with pickup lines. Sincere, uncool Mike (Chris Moynihan, who also created "100 Questions") fails at every turn, while smooth-talking Wayne (David Walton, "quarterlife") makes the women melt.

MY SAY Like ABC's recent "Romantically Challenged," "100 Questions" fails to distinguish its characters much in its initial outing.

There's the usual rudimentary types: romance-minded lead, cool guy, not-so-hip guy, blond wisecracker (Collette Wolfe) and less-secure friend (Smith Cho).

They're a bland bunch of characters who say mildly amusing things - there's a pretty good riff on Mary Poppins - in occasionally funny situations, but in the end, "100 Questions" does not cry out to be added to any DVR lineup.

BOTTOM LINE NBC is right to burn off this show during the low-viewing months of summer.

GRADE C