News / TV

Chris Gethard prepares to launch the LIVE edition of The Chris Gethard Show on truTV

After a 14-month break, The Chris Gethard Show is back in session.

Same host. Same cast. Same set. Same band. Shannon O’Neill, Bethany Hall, The Human Fish, Vacation Jason, Murf and all haven’t left the building. But Gethard and his merry minions will now be broadcasting LIVE, and on a TV network that most Americans actually subscribe to in their cable/streaming packages.

From its humble origins in the basement Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre below a supermarket, to public access TV, to Fusion, and now live on truTV.

The first of 16 weekly episodes of The Chris Gethard Show, produced by Funny or Die, premieres live tonight on truTV.

Even before 11 p.m. Eastern (10 p.m. Central), fans can tune in on Facebook Live to watch Connor Ratliff’s pre-show warm-up.

Gethard ran through two test shows on Monday, then welcomed media to the set on Tuesday, where he told me about making the adjustment to live commercial television:

“There’s six acts, so that’s a lot of commercial breaks. That is the big one that everyone’s been drilling into me, is ‘You can’t go off on some super-emo tangent, or bring some kid up and just let them do whatever they want for seven minutes. You have to actually cut to commercial.’ I have to actually be responsible to execute this in the allotted time. They can’t just cut off and people don’t know how it ended. So a lot of what we were practicing with our test shows is logistics stuff, organizational stuff. And then, also, obviously me remembering how to do this creatively after over a year off.”

He does have a lot of experience and leadership in that arena, though.

“Vaguely,” Gethard jokingly replied. “I don’t know that I ever quite knew what to do, which is sort of the secret weapon of the show, is that I don’t know what I’m doing. I think if I learned what to do it would be a betrayal of everything we stood for.”

Indeed! Roll the clip!

The Chris Gethard Show airs live Thursday nights at 11 p.m. (10 p.m. Central) on truTV.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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