The Chris Gethard Show is the best live TV show ever made. In fact as far as I'm concerned it's the first live TV show that matters.
TV is generally a crass medium. Even publicly funded television is often anxious to please everyone, and in doing so sinks to the lowest common denominator. The Chris Gethard Show never does that. It only strives to connect to the viewers in an honest way. It doesn't really matter if the viewer is brought to laugh, to boredom, to reveal personal emotions or to impersonate a dead celebrity. As long as people call in and bring something interesting to the table, the show is considered a success.
Chris Gethard and his enormous team of volunteers achieve this by letting their own creativity flow in various unexpected ways. There's an episode where the whole panel is blindfolded and other people come near them to freak them out. There's an episode where various experts talk about high culture while Colt Cabana demonstrates wrestling moves. There's an episode with guest host Alyssa about how awesome Beyoncé is. And there's multiple episodes in which Gethard is a human crane, because the first one was a genuine disaster so of course it had to be done again.
Special consideration should go to the music. The house band the LLC is essential in creating the atmosphere, and the musical guests are phenomenal. Acts like the Stumblebum Brass Band, The Debutante Hour and the Dolchnakov Brigade are an amazing eye opener into the talent of the underground New York music scene.
Through the internet TCGS is creating connections now between people worldwide. It will doubtless serve to inspire creativity everywhere it's watched. Gethard's magic is making people see that they have something to contribute, no matter how weird or sad they might consider themselves to be.
