Chris Gethard has written a well received book (“A Bad Idea I’m About To Do”) and released a stellar comedy album (2014’s My Comedy Album). He’s toured the country, written briefly for Saturday Night Live, been in movies and TV shows (Broad City), and become a cult comedy icon with his public access talk show, The Chris Gethard Show.
Gethard has done everything that you’re supposed to do and a lot of things that nobody thinks to do (like make your own damn show on public access) in an effort to push beyond the cusp, but it hasn’t happened yet despite getting awfully close with IFC and Comedy Central in the last two years. All of that may be about to change, though, as Gethard announced today that The Chris Gethard Show has found a place on cable.
Here’s Gethard’s statement via Splitsider:
I’m super excited to say that it looks like TCGS has found a home on cable. Nothing is 100% set in stone just yet, but things are close enough to being finalized that people on all sides were down with letting me give a goodbye to our public access supporters in case we go into production in January and don’t get to come back and have a farewell episode on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. On my end I can say that I am so beyond excited about our future home – I walked away from my meeting with them feeling like they were progressive, looking to innovate, and down to help us really rattle the chains and see what we can do with this thing we’ve built. They really feel like kindred spirits in so many ways, and if you know anything about our show you know that to say that about development executives is kind of a miracle, because our show is bonkers magoo. My plan is to make these people look like geniuses for taking a chance on us and to turn many heads. For a few years all I’ve been saying is that I can’t give up on TCGS, because we’ve managed to do something that feels unique with tons of limitations. I always felt like if I gave up before finding someone who could give us a small budget and a real chance at doing it right, I’d kick myself forever. We finally get a chance to do it right, so now we just have to put up or shut up. We plan on bringing you the same balls out idiotic comedy with real honesty and emo heart and dedication to its fans we’ve always brought, just now we can do it with a set that doesn’t have to fit in the trunk of my car and also I assume the lights won’t turn off halfway through an episode and we won’t have to deal with a situation where we show up and someone has stolen all the microphones. It’s going to be so rad.
Also, I am someone who always works best while chasing an unrealistic dream. Now that it looks like we’re going to accomplish the unrealistic dream of leaping from public access over to cable, I’m calling it now – TCGS will win an Emmy within two years. Quote me on that.
Gethard’s show is too odd and unhinged to live on a network, so cable makes sense, but there are no obvious destinations that jump out since he’s already been through the ringer with Comedy Central and IFC (though, to be fair, that wasn’t for a late night show).
Regardless of where the show winds up, a little comedic weirdness is absolutely needed in late night with Craig Ferguson leaving and Stephen Colbert switching gears to take over The Late Show. So hopefully Gethard’s new corporate overlords are patient, gentle, and willing to let him find an audience on top of the rabid one that he’s bringing with him.
Source: Splitsider
