Color us surprised. Apparently VH1’s weekly pop-culture gab fest is undergoing a rather drastic overhaul. Instead of the usual cast of characters–mainly NYC-based comedians who you can drunkenly run into throughout the West Village–there’s a bit of a shake-up today as Best Week Ever is now…Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins! (We added the exclamation mark.)

OhNoTheyDidn’t has the PR Language:

The change is part of a larger revamping of the show, the channel’s longest-running weekly series if not its most popular. “Clearly, some of our reality shows get bigger numbers,” said Jim Ackerman, the senior vice president for development at VH1, referring to programs like “I Love New York.”

“But I think ‘Best Week Ever’ has helped find the voice of the channel in the last couple years.” Still, he added, “it was time to shake up the format a little bit,” especially since that love-to-hate-it take on celebrity minutiae has been widely copied. “With Paul, we get a bit of control and we get a more singular voice, and I think we might be more consistently funny.”

Though Mr. Ackerman said the change was not ratings-driven, Mr. Tompkins acknowledged that there was competition with “The Soup,” the E! network’s similar pop-culture wrap-up show, hosted by Joel McHale. It is shown at 10 p.m. on Fridays — “Best Week Ever” is on an hour later — but is repeated twice as often throughout the week. (Both are half-hour weekly series. According to Nielsen, in the last year “Best Week Ever” averaged 520,000 prime-time viewers; “The Soup,” 890,000.) Though some features of the old “Best Week Ever,” like “The Sizzler,” a quick gossip rundown, will remain, and some former panelists will return for scripted bits, the new show will be more written-through, and may even have a less mean-spirited take, more in line with Mr. Tompkins’s genial point of view.

They’re even going to incorporate a podium for Tompkins! While the ONTD headline is a bit touchy (”Best Week Ever to become a shitty and less mean-spirited ripoff of The Soup”) we are willing to watch anything with Tompkins, who gives us fond Mr Show memories.

No word on how this effects the blog, or which on-air talent is staying on with Tompkins.

[edit: whoops, we had an image from Ben Kharakh before that involved photoshop. Either way, go check out Ben’s site. He’s pretty nifty and spiffy.]