THE FRONT ROW: Down in flames

SO AWKWARD: Well, that was ... unexpected.

For reasons beyond anyone’s understanding, HBO thought it would be a good idea to give bland play-by-play man Joe Buck his own talk show, called (creatively enough) “The Joe Buck Show.”

Never once did I think that Buck — famous for his work calling the World Series, the Super Bowl, and countless NFL games with Troy Aikman — was funny or charismatic enough to host his own talk show, and Monday night’s premiere episode drilled that fact home.

And then some.

The show harmlessly cruised along for the first few segments, featuring terrible interviews with Chad Ochocinco, David Wright, Michael Irvin and Brett Favre. None of those men have a single interesting thing to say. And until he actually signs with an NFL team, I promise to keep my thoughts on Favre to myself.

Things got really wild in the final “comedy” segment, which featured Buck’s high school buddy (and A-list movie star) Paul Rudd, “Saturday Night Live” standout Jason Sudeikis, and the one-man talk-show wrecking crew, Artie Lange.

I don’t know what Buck was hoping to accomplish here, but the 10 minutes that happened live on HBO couldn’t have been what he envisioned.

Lange — a notoriously filthy stand-up comedian and one of Howard Stern’s go-to funnymen — spun out of control, unleashing his unique brand of profanity-filled humor, which left Buck (the same guy who called Randy Moss’ fake mooning at Lambeau Field “a disgusting act”) flapping in the breeze.

Buck simply had no chance rein Lange in (since it was a live broadcast on a channel that allows profanity), which begs the question — why have Lange on in the first place? Anyone even remotely familiar with Lange’s act knew something like this would happen.

Make no mistake, this ranks as one of the 10 most awkward TV moments of my life — perhaps topping the infamous Buzz Bissinger tirade against former Deadspin editor Will Leitch on HBO’s “Costas Now.”

I can’t emphasize this strongly enough. The first episode of “The Joe Buck Show” was a disaster of epic proportions. It was like watching a fish host a talk show on land.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747