I think we can officially say the end times are nigh.

Billy Mays, the loud and obnoxious pitch man of such wonderful products as OxiClean, is getting his own reality series on Discovery.  According to the story in the Hollywood Reporter, he and, the almost-as-annoying, Anthony Sullivan will have a series entitled But Wait… There’s More.  This new series will follow the two men as they locate even more products to hawk on television via annoying commercials  in the wee hours of the morning on cable channels, making you wish you had gone to bed several hours earlier.

I’ve discussed Mr. Mays before and his ability to annoy me, but he seems to just keep chugging along like a cockroach after a nuclear holocaust.  Every time I turn around he pops up with another product that he is more than happy to scream at you about, and give you that stupid “thumbs up” of his which tells you this product HAS to be good.  To give you an idea of just how often you see this guy pop up, below is a list of just some of the products he has yelled at American television viewers about:

• OxiClean
• Orange Glo
• Kaboom
• Engrave It
• Handy Switch
• iCan
• Mighty Mend-It
• Mighty Putty
• Hercules Hook
• AwesomeAuger
• Steam Buddy
• Zorbeez
• Big City Slider Station
• The Ding King

Anthony Sullivan isn’t quite as annoying, but he still ranks up there.  Apparently if you have an English accent you can make anything sound that much more sophisticated and like a quality product.

I don’t quite get why Discovery channel thinks this show will be even remotely interesting, but apparently they think someone out there will watch it.  To me it just seems like a glorified commercial for whatever these guys will end up pitching in the future.

I did learn yesterday while listening to a stoy on NPR’s All Things Considered that we are seeing a rise in the number of these commercials due to the downturn in the economy.  The companies that sell these products send their commercials out to TV stations with the orders to run them in any unsold slots they may have.  With the cut backs companies are making to their advertising budgets, the number of empty slots is increasing, and hence the number of these annoyances go up.  A lose-lose situation for the viewing public; less money in their pockets and being exposed to these yahoos.

I do have to say, I guess it could have been worse, they could have made Vince, the Shamwow guy, one of the people on the show.  -shudder-

Update 06/28/09: Billy Mays has died.