"Thank God You’re Here" is a new reality comedy show on NBC. The show, hosted by David Allan Grier and judged by Dave Foley, features a cast of four celebrities joining five supporting actors in each episode. The celebrities are each put into a costume and thrust through a door onto a set they’ve never seen before. The supporting actors do have scripts and they help lead and prompt the celebrity as they improvise their way through the scene.

The title comes from the idea that each celebrity’s arrival is the person this scene’s group has been anxiously waiting to see, i.e. ‘Thank God you’ re here…Sven.” After each celebrity has their turn at an individual scene, all four celebrities don similar costumes for a group scene. At the end of the show Dave Foley critiques their efforts and picks one celebrity to win the “ Thank God You’re Here” award.

One of the things I didn’t like, especially since I am a great fan of improvisational comedy, is that whereas most actors are only given the basics of a scene and have to make up everything from there, these celebrities were most often dressed in costumes that were stereotypical for their scene and thus shed some prior insight on what they could expect. I also didn’t like how the supporting players had scripts and would often prompt the celebrity on what to say or do next. Despite that, I did find the show very funny and would watch it again.