The Real 'Decision 2008': Veronica's Replacement

As you may know, Veronica Belmont, the now former host of Mahalo Daily  recently left for greener and Kevin Rosier pastures: Revision3‘s Tekzilla.  This left Mahalo chief Jason Calacanis in search of a new technically-inclined cutie to assume the Daily duties.

Well, Monday marks the beginning of the final round of Mahalo VLOGIdol which means you have all weekend to study up on the finalists and become an educated voter.

The exact number of hopefuls that showed up at the Santa Monica auditions is about as vague as the exact number of people who actually watch Mahalo Daily.  According to various Mahalo sources, somewhere between “dozens” and “50 million” ladies turned out in hopes of filling Veronica’s shoes.

After several rounds of auditions last weekend, the ‘celebrity’ judges have whittled down the field to twelve finalists who have been spending the past week producing their own Mahalo Daily segments.

There’s good news and bad news about the twelve.  First, the good.  These are twelve very impressive candidates, many of whom have experience hosting on TV.  This portends good things for the future of web video; apparently it holds enough allure to entice people to leave their gigs at obscure cable channels in favor of the small small screen.  

And now, the bad: none of them are Veronica Belmont.  I watched all of the finalists’ videos and could not find one to root for.  Many are too Hollywood, a few a too geeky, and none were gifted with that certain vloggy je ne sais quios that Veronica had in spades.

I look forward to watching, though.  And maybe as we get to see the candidates in context, a favorite will emerge.  (And hopefully a scandal, too!)