Britney's on Mother

It's so weird that Britney Spears' guest starring turn on "How I Met Your Mother" last night completely overshadowed the rest of the show. There was nothing exactly wrong with her performance, other than they gave her more lines and a bigger role than the character she played really deserved. She was a little manic, trying a little hard, a little mechanical, but not out and out terrible.

The real problem, though, was that this episode also introduced Sarah Chalke of NBC's "Scrubs" (or possibly ABC's "Scrubs" next season, it's TBD). And Chalke is so much more natural at this comedy stuff that she tremendously overshadowed the guest star who was overshadowing her. Originally, Alicia Silverstone was going to join the cast (although it's unclear whether she would have played the same role), but bowed out after the Spears stunt.

Finally, let's be honest. Sarah Chalke is like 100 times hotter than Britney Spears. Especially in this episode, in which they certainly didn't go out of their way to make Britney look good. I mean, she's so much hotter, there's really no question why Ted doesn't notice the receptionist. The real question is, why is Spears still getting so much attention? I mean, aside from paparazzi being too lazy to drum up a new trainwreck to chase.

The good news in all of this is that it dramatically increases the likelihood of "How I Met Your Mother" getting renewed for another season (it's still on the bubble). The bad news is that it dramatically increases the likelihood of "Mother" resorting to stunt casting to draw ratings, a la the latter days of "Will & Grace." Days that we'd all rather forget.