Melissa Rycroft joins ‘GMA’ to help lower the bar

"Oh my gosh, journalism is gonna be fun!"

One of the wonderful things about TV is that even the crappiest of ideas are always worth stealing.

Last week, NBC’s “Today” rotated in women from Bravo’s “Real Housewives” series as co-hosts for no apparent reason at all (except some blatant and non-sensical corporate synergy.) By all accounts, it was an awful idea — but that hasn’t stopped ABC’s “Good Morning America” from announcing that reality TV punching bag Melissa Rycroft will be joining the show as a special contributor this summer.

Rycroft, you’ll remember, is the woman who got dumped on ABC’s “The Bachelor” and did not win ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Maybe the third time’s the charm? Not bloodly likely.

But it has the potential to be interesting, at least, and here’s why:

“GMA” has a chipper features correspondent named Taryn Winter Brill who specializes in reporting unwatchable stories only about herself. For example:

I usually think that TWB’s pieces are the worst thing on “GMA,” but with Rycroft aboard, we’ve got ourselves an old-fashioned competition to see who can out-embarrass themselves. I’ll keep an eye on it. Betting starts at $5.