The Eric Andre Show is an American sketch comedy television series which began airing on May 20, 2012. The show premiered on Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim and is a parody of late night talk shows. The series is hosted by comedian Eric André and formerly co-hosted by fellow comedian Hannibal Buress and Blannibal (played by James Hazley). All episodes of the show have been directed by Kitao Sakurai and Andrew Barchilon. Gary Anthony Williams served as the announcer in the first season, being replaced by Tom Kane in the second season and Robert Smith from the third season onwards.
A total of 55 episodes have aired over the course of six seasons. On December 31, 2012, The Eric Andre Show aired a 45-minute live New Year's special, titled The Eric Andre New Year's Eve Spooktacular. A second special, named Eric Andre Does Paris, aired on February 18, 2018.
The fifth season premiered on October 25, 2020. On May 18, 2022, Adult Swim announced the show had been renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on June 4, 2023.
Premise
Each episode opens on the show's main set: a standard talk-show set-up with a desk, a chair, and some decor. The show's announcer declares "Ladies and gentlemen, it's The Eric Andre Show!" and the opening song begins to play. During this time, André runs onto set and destroys the backdrop, desk, and various furnishings around him. Once the song is completed, stagehands swiftly remove the broken furniture and replace it with identical pieces. Buress, the co-host, walks in at this time, usually to weak applause from the audience. André may then perform a monologue, incorporating dark comedy and surrealism. While he struggles to perform, his monologue usually turns defensive and aggressive as Buress derides him. The show will then typically be a mix of surreal celebrity interviews and short sketches, candid camera footage, and non sequiturs, usually focused on André's absurd behavior in regular settings.
At the end, a performer of some type plays over the ending credits. Ending performances are usually parodies of amateur acts common to public-access television, while other times they are real musicians playing their own songs with heavy twists, such as punk band Trash Talk playing while wearing volume-sensitive shock collars or a female opera singer performing while rapper Killer Mike serves as her hype man. Killer Mike also appeared in a later episode, performing a rap battle against rapper Action Bronson while the two were on treadmills. Mac DeMarco once played while André initiated a segment styled after Japanese game shows titled "Attack DeMarco!", in which numerous samurai began tormenting DeMarco. In one episode, comedian Rory Scovel had a cooking segment in which he increasingly got upset and destroyed his work station while rapper T-Pain sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and fired a gun in the air.
André has expressed that each season of the show is shot with a unique style in mind, intended to be thematically cohesive while remaining distinct from other seasons. Season 1 stylistically follows the series pilot which was shot without studio backing on a limited budget, using vintage Ikegami cameras and a darkly lit set built in an abandoned bodega. For all subsequent seasons the show were filmed in high-definition and featured more modern late-night comedy talk show elements, including André's appearance in a formal gray suit. For season 3, André grew out and straightened his hair in imitation of the distinctive hairstyle of comedian Katt Williams and decorated the set with tropical plants, intending to give the season an upbeat feeling to audiences. In stark contrast, season 4 took place in a darkly lit setting reminiscent of the first season, where André wore a tuxedo and professed to have avoided bathing or grooming, and lost weight during production, dubbing this season the "dystopian Eraserhead" season. This season also featured a new house band. Countering season 4, André's season 5 set included a revamping of the set with more vibrant decorations and a green screen behind the curtain where guests come out. André himself shaved all of his body hair except for his eyebrows, wore inexpensive cologne, tanned his skin and gained weight throughout. For season 6, André had his hair slicked back and tied into a ponytail.