The Next Best Thing is an American Reality television series competition of celebrity impersonators with a grand prize of US$100000 2007. It was hosted by Michele Merkin. The judges were Jeffrey Ross, Elon Gold and Lisa Ann Walter; ultimately, the winner was chosen by viewer voting. The eight-episode series debuted May 30, 2007 on ABC and ended the same year.

Episodes

The premiere featured contestants impersonating (among others) Howard Stern, Jack Nicholson, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Superman, Jennifer Aniston, Janet Jackson, Bill Cosby, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Phil McGraw, Hank Williams Jr., Arthur (Fonzie) Fonzarelli, and Avril Lavigne.

Semi-finals

The judges narrowed down the contestants to 30 semi-finalists, 28 of whom were featured in fully shown performances over two episodes. The semi-finalists were:

Finalists

Of the 30 semi-finalists, the judges chose the following 10 to be finalists:

Order of finish

American viewers voted, and ranked the finalists in the following order: As the winner, Trent Carlini received $100,000.

Trivia