When we heard Discovery was not only airing a documentary series called Sarah Palin's Alaska, but shelling out big bucks for the right to, we were confused.

Seriously ... a show about the state's natural beauty from a former half-term governor turned professional celebrity who arguably did tremendous ecological harm to Alaska and wishes she could drill, baby, drill even harder?

How is that not an all-time low for the network?

Apparently it is. A source within Discovery says that when they pitched the show to ad buyers, they were not impressed: "the whole thing [was] comical."

As much as a contractual demand for straws that bend? Hard to say.

HALF-BAKED ALASKA: Who gave this the green light?

"After the promo, (employees and buyers) were rolling their eyes, snickering ... people were laughing and it's not even a comedy. No one took it seriously."

The insider was concerned that given a lack of interest from ad buyers, Discovery would have to "dump the show to a crappy time slot" to cut losses.

"The bottom line is that everyone thought it was an all-time low for Discovery ... My guess is the show is going to tank big time." We'd have to agree.

After all, it's going to air on Discovery's sister network, TLC. As in The Learning Channel, where the audience presumably wants to learn something.

That's pretty much the opposite of what Sarah Palin is known for. What's next, Kate Gosselin doling out parenting advice? Oh... wait.