After its whirlwind courtship with Comedy Central ended with heartache, The Chris Gethard Show is getting all romantical with another cable network. The show, self-described as “the most bizarre and often saddest talk show in New York City,” currently broadcasts from Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s small Hell’s Kitchen studio on Wednesday nights with an internet livestream. Since it’s original run as a show at UCB, it’s gained a national cult following. Guests have included Amy Poehler, Zach Galifianakis, and Hannibal Burress.
Splitsider posted the statement from Gethard, in which the improviser cautioned that while “nothing is 100% set in stone just yet,” he’s received the go-ahead to say goodbye to his public access channel supporters. The picture above, posted to the show’s Tumblr a day ago, is captioned: Last public access #TCGS ever!?! Heeeeyah!!!!” According to Chris Gethard, TCGS could be going into production in January.
Gethard says the network is “progressive,” which, while surprising, doesn’t give us enough to speculate, sadly:
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.
And it looks like the show, which has acquired a cult following across the country, could stay pretty true to its values:
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.
Gethard’s next “unrealistic dream”? Win an Emmy…in two years:
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.
We’re rooting for you, Geth.
(Photo: @kskill)
