The nightmare is over
As much as I wanted to hate the show, I did get hooked on Dream Job. So it seemed almost fitting that the guy who seemed good enough not to lose would actually have enough to win the grand prize. As Cooch has already mentioned, Mike Hall wasn't the best of the final four, nor the final two, but somehow he won the grand prize.

I still think people got confused how their vote was supposed to count, just like Week 1 when Mike got voted off by the fans, partly because he was on first, and no one was sure whether to vote for your favorite or to eliminate a contestant. And if you consider Dream Job's Survivor-like setup, shouldn't the final vote be the one you want to win, not lose? Thus, Mizzou boy wins it after all, much to the chagring of seemingly everyone around me.

However, I do think there is a silver lining to Aaron not winning. First off, Mike has got to be getting some scorn from those in Bristol (and everywhere else in the profession) because he answered some trivia questions to bump his salary to $95,000. A college senior doing highlights making $95,000. Think about that for a second. How much do you think some of the j-school students will make at their first job? How many people at ESPN make that much? I don't think you're going to get much support from those living on ramen right now.

Secondly, I think Aaron could turn into the Dave Holmes of the show, meaning Mike is the Jesse Camp of MTV. Anyone hear from Camp or his hair recently? Holmes ended up becoming a halfway decent personality on the network for a few years as the runner-up to MTV's similar contest a few years ago and still shows up on cable as a host. Aaron will find himself in a high double-digit market in a few months and work his way up quickly, probably earning a bit more respect as he takes the "normal" path to success. He's got one hell of a resume tape already. (Oh yeah, after that performance on the buzzer in the sports quiz test, we've got to get him to play a trash tournament.)

Of course, when it comes down to it, I think Aaron got screwed when he was paired with L-Co (?!?) for the SportsCenter segment. Then again, you could see the scorn on Karl Ravech's face when he was paired with Mike. (When's Baseball Tonight going to start? Where's Harold? Where's Gammons? Where's Stark? Who did I piss off to get this gig?)