Have I Got News for You (American game show)

Last updated

Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News For You US, title card.png
Genre
Created by Jimmy Mulville
Presented by Roy Wood Jr.
Starring
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes10
Production
Production location CBS Broadcast Center
Running time44 minutes
Production company Hat Trick Productions
Original release
Network CNN
ReleaseSeptember 14, 2024 (2024-09-14) –
present

Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is an American television panel show based on the British series of the same name. Piloted by Bravo, NBC, and TBS in 2005, 2009, and 2012, the show eventually premiered on September 14, 2024, on CNN in the run-up to the 2024 United States elections. Two teams of two captained by Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black answer news-based trivia questions on current events happening the week prior to an episode's broadcast. Unlike the British original, which used guest hosts from 2002, the program booked a permanent host in Roy Wood Jr. The show received mixed reception but improved the network's ratings for its slot.

Contents

Gameplay

The rounds are similar to those of the British version, with "Missing Words" and "Odd One Out" featuring in both. [1] In the first five episodes, the rounds were, in various orders:

Background

The British version of Have I Got News for You premiered in 1990 with Angus Deayton as presenter and Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as team captains, [2] and had been commissioned by a BBC department that included Mark Thompson. [1] Episodes were half an hour long [1] and were bound by impartiality guidelines, as the BBC was a public service broadcaster. [3] The series was produced by Hat Trick Productions, an outfit helmed by Jimmy Mulville, [2] and moved from BBC Two to BBC One in 2000 after Thompson became its director of television. [4] The programme developed a reputation for acerbity, twice replacing guests who canceled with inanimate objects, [1] and was once sued for describing a sitting Member of Parliament as a "conniving little shit". [5] Deayton resigned in 2002 amid claims that he had taken cocaine and slept with prostitutes [6] and the show used guest hosts from then on, including Jo Brand, Jeremy Clarkson, Boris Johnson, Brian Blessed, William Shatner, [2] and Gary Neville, who was grilled by Hislop on his appearance. [1]

History

In 2005, Bravo expressed interest in airing its own version, [1] with Sam Seder piloting versions for NBC and TBS in 2009 and 2012. [2] The team captains for the NBC version were Michael Ian Black and Greg Giraldo, [7] while TBS hired Black and Sherrod Small as captains. [8] In a September 2024 interview with Rolling Stone , Mulville stated that previous networks had declined the show as they wanted it to be more pop-culture and celebrity-based. [1] In early 2024, Mulville approached Thompson, [9] who the previous autumn [6] had became the director general of CNN, about making a version of the show for his network. He was receptive to the idea [4] and announced the series while speaking at the Warner Bros. Discovery TV Upfronts week presentation on May 15, 2024. [10] The show was initially commissioned for ten episodes. [11]

Current series panellists and host
Roy Wood Jr.jpg
Roy Wood Jr.
Amber Ruffin 2018.jpg
Amber Ruffin
Michael Ian Black May 2015.jpg
Michael Ian Black

In August 2024, [12] the Alabama-raised [4] comedian Roy Wood Jr. was announced as the show's sole host; [13] he had previously been a correspondent for The Daily Show between 2015 and 2023 [12] and had been involved in a prior pilot for the show. [14] Later that month, it was announced that Black would appear as team captain opposite Amber Ruffin, who had hosted several series of The Amber Ruffin Show and been a long-time writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers. [15] She had got her job after auditioning opposite multiple other late-night show presenters and contributors and news podcasters. [16] The trio had not worked together before the show but did film a test episode beforehand. [17]

Episodes were recorded on Fridays and broadcast on Saturdays [16] and were an hour long. [18] The series followed repeats of Real Time with Bill Maher , [19] a HBO show they broadcast on Fridays, which had become CNN's highest-rating show since they began repeating it in March 2024. [6] The series premiered on September 14, 2024, [11] with Ruffin and Black accompanied by Matt Welch, a libertarian writer, and Robin Thede, a comedian [14] and creator of A Black Lady Sketch Show . [11] By the following afternoon, extensive outtakes from the show had circulated on the internet. [14] The show's timing, in the run-up to the 2024 United States elections and during a period where any accusations of bias either way could impact the channel's centrist reputation, [9] led the University of Connecticut professor of communication David D'Alessio to ask a The New York Times interviewer if "someone at CNN" had "lost their mind". [14]

Reception and aftermath

Dylan Fugel of Paste felt that the show lacked the "meanness" of the original and wrote that it appeared "to sit uncomfortably between genres, a show that wants the "we're all goofing around" lightness of After Midnight or Whose Line Is It Anyway? while dealing with the "this world is going to hell" topics of competitors like The Daily Show". He also opined that Welch's contributions were the funniest of the night, despite him being the one member of the panel not being paid to be funny, and felt that the show was excessively pacey, which he blamed on the competitors, especially Black, getting answers right too often. [5] Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph wondered "how CNN's British-born boss Mark Thompson was talked by Hat Trick co-founder Jimmy Mulville into importing the format", though felt that the show was basically competent albeit less barbed than the original. [14] Joel Keller of Decider.com complimented the comedy of Wood, Ruffin, and Black, but felt the show was too long. [18]

The opening episode was watched by 737,000 people, which was significantly more than most CNN programs got in that slot but slightly less than Real Time. HIGNFY was beaten in the ratings by One Nation with Brian Kilmeade , which aired opposite on Fox News, and the first half of the two-hour special MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024, which aired on NBC. [19] On September 18, 2024, the BBC announced that they had scheduled the first episode for broadcast on BBC Two later that day and would air the rest of the series. [11] Wood promoted the show on Sherri around a week later and asserted that he had received messages from British people begging him not to perform poorly, prompting him to promise to treat the show "better than they treated Meghan Markle". [20] He was later booked to present an episode of the British version scheduled for November 8, the week of the US election. [21]

Episodes

Season 1

No.Amber's teamMichael's teamOriginal air date
1 Matt Welch Robin Thede September 14, 2024 (2024-09-14)
2 Charlie Dent Rosebud Baker September 21, 2024 (2024-09-21)
3 Negin Farsad Mark McKinnon September 28, 2024 (2024-09-28)
4 Andy Richter Ana Navarro October 5, 2024 (2024-10-05)
5 John Hodgman Joanna Coles October 12, 2024 (2024-10-12)
6 Alex Edelman Sam Seder October 19, 2024 (2024-10-19)

Related Research Articles

<i>Have I Got News for You</i> British television panel show

Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. The programme focuses on two teams, one usually captained by Ian Hislop and one by Paul Merton, each plus a guest panelist, answering questions on various news stories on the week prior to an episode's broadcast. However, the programme's format focuses more on the topical discussions on the subject of the news stories related to questions, and the satirical humour derived from these by the teams. This style of presentation had a profound impact on panel shows in British TV comedy, making it one of the genre's key standard-bearers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus Deayton</span> English television presenter, actor, writer, and comedian (born 1956)

Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panel show</span> Radio and TV genre

A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participate. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on Match Game and Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. The genre can be traced to 1938, when Information Please debuted on U.S. radio. The earliest known television panel show is Play the Game, a charades show in 1946. The modern trend of comedy panel shows can find early roots with Stop Me If You've Heard This One in 1939 and Can You Top This? in 1940. While panel shows were more popular in the past in the U.S., they are still very common in the United Kingdom.

<i>The Daily Show</i> American late-night satirical news television program

The Daily Show is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+. The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, and media organizations. It often uses self-referential humor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Dee</span> English comedian and actor (born 1961)

James Andrew Innes Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour. He wrote and starred in the sitcom Lead Balloon and hosts the panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hat Trick Productions</span> British independent TV production company

Hat Trick Productions Limited is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. The company's logo is depicted as a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat instead of the other way around.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Thompson</span> English novelist and biographer

Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series Monkey Dust, screened between 2003 and 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Webb</span> English comedian, presenter, actor and writer (born 1972)

Robert Patrick Webb is an English comedian, actor and writer. He rose to prominence alongside David Mitchell as the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Wood Jr.</span> American comedian and actor

Roy Norris Wood Jr. is an American stand-up comedian and actor best known for his correspondent appearances on The Daily Show. A resident of Manhattan, Wood was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Ramsay High School in 1996, Wood began his career in stand-up comedy as the opening act for Tommy Davidson. He had a position as head writer on the WBHJ radio series Buckwilde Morning Show from 2001 to 2006. Wood has been featured on NBC's reality television series Last Comic Standing in 2010 and the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son from 2011 to 2014. He formerly hosted two podcasts for Comedy Central: Roy's Job Fair and Beyond the Scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Wilmore</span> American comedian

Elister Larry Wilmore III is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He served as the "Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2014, and hosted The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in 2015 and 2016. He is also the creator of the sitcom The Bernie Mac Show. He served as an executive producer for the ABC television series Black-ish, and is the co-creator, with Issa Rae, of the HBO television series Insecure. Since May 2017, he has hosted a podcast, Black on the Air, where he discusses current events and interviews guests. He was the host of the talk show Wilmore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen K. Amos</span> English comedian

Stephen Kehinde Amos is a British comedian and television personality. A regular on the international comedy circuit, he is known for including his audience members during his shows. He began his career as a compere at the Big Fish comedy clubs in South London, and has been nominated for Chortle's Best Compere Award three times in 2004, 2007 and 2008.

<i>News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald</i> 2007 British TV series or programme

News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald, more commonly referred to as simply News Knight is a British television panel show shown on ITV, at 22:00 on Sunday nights. Fronted by Sir Trevor McDonald and in a similar style to the BBC One programme Have I Got News for You, its format featured three comedians and McDonald satirising the week's news. Marcus Brigstocke was a permanent member of the "news team".

<i>Would I Lie to You?</i> (British game show) British TV comedy panel game show (since 2007)

Would I Lie to You? is a British comedy panel show aired on BBC One, made by Zeppotron for the BBC. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007, starring David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains. The show was originally presented by Angus Deayton, and since 2009 has been hosted by Rob Brydon.

Kevin Hunter Day is a British stand up comedian, comedy writer and sports presenter. He came to prominence in the British alternative comedy stand up scene of the late eighties and early nineties, playing clubs like The Comedy Store. This led to him hosting the comedy discussion programme Loose Talk on BBC Radio 1 from 1992 to 1994, having initially co-hosted with Mark Thomas when the programme was launched in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Lewis (journalist)</span> British journalist (born 1983)

Helen Alexandra Lewis is a British journalist and a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is a former deputy editor of the New Statesman, and has also written for The Guardian and The Sunday Times.

<i>Late Night with Seth Meyers</i> American late-night talk show

Late Night with Seth Meyers is an American late-night news and political satire variety talk show hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC. The show premiered on February 24, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. Airing weeknights at 12:37 a.m. ET/PT, it is the fourth iteration of NBC's Late Night franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivo Graham</span> English stand-up comedian

Ivo Charles Graham is an English stand-up comedian and comedy writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber Ruffin</span> American comedian, writer, and actress

Amber Mildred Ruffin is an American comedian, writer and actress. She hosted her own late-night talk show titled The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock. She has been a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014. When she joined the show she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States.

<i>The Amber Ruffin Show</i> American late-night talk show

The Amber Ruffin Show is an American comedy late-night talk show. Produced by Universal Television and Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions and starring Amber Ruffin, it features a mix of sketches and monologues. The series was ordered for nine half-hour episodes and premiered on NBCUniversal's video-streaming service Peacock on September 25, 2020. Peacock ordered an additional 10 episodes in December 2020, and the series was promoted with a brief run on the NBC broadcast network in February and March 2021. The third season premiered on September 30, 2022. In 2023, it was announced the program would only return on occasion as specials but these were never ordered.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bryan, Scott (September 16, 2024). "Inside CNN's New Comedy Quiz Show. Yes, You Read That Right". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Topping, Alexandra (May 17, 2024). "Have I Got News for You to launch in the US in autumn". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  3. ↑ McFarland, Melanie (September 14, 2024). ""They might be going wild": "Have I Got News For You" brings "Late Night" star Amber Ruffin to CNN". Salon. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Hurley, Bevan; Farber, Alex (September 13, 2024). "Whose show is it anyway? Have I Got News For You makes US debut". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Have I Got News For You Doesn't Have A Mean Bone In Its Body". Paste . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 "CNN to adapt popular British comedy quiz show for Saturday nights". Los Angeles Times. May 15, 2024. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  7. ↑ Guide, British Comedy (November 10, 2012). "American version of Have I Got News For You piloted". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Have I Got News for You records US pilot". Digital Spy. November 13, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  9. 1 2 Marshall, Alex (September 13, 2024). "Politicians Get Roasted on This Beloved British Show. Can It Be a U.S. Hit?". The New York Times . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Mark Thompson Previews CNN's New Weekend Strategy: 'We're Trying to Provide a Range of Moods and Flavors'". AdWeek . May 24, 2024. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Bennett, Steve. "BBC to air American Have I Got News For You : News 2024 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  12. 1 2 Porter, Rick (August 8, 2024). "Roy Wood Jr. to Host CNN's 'Have I Got News for You'". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  13. ↑ Riccardo, Nick (August 8, 2024). "Roy Wood Jr. to Host CNN's 'Have I Got News For You' Comedy Show". LateNighter. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Power, Ed (September 15, 2024). "An American Have I Got News for You? It's no calamity, but no match for the original". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  15. ↑ Grobar, Matt (August 19, 2024). "Amber Ruffin & Michael Ian Black Join CNN's 'Have I Got News For You' As Team Captains". Deadline. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  16. 1 2 Adalian, Josef (September 13, 2024). "Jokes Amber Can Tell (on CNN)". Vulture. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  17. ↑ "Michael Ian Black Is Just Trying to Figure It Out". InsideHook. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  18. 1 2 "'Have I Got News For You' CNN/Max Review: Stream It Or Skip It?" . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  19. 1 2 Rosenzweig, Jed (September 18, 2024). "CNN Sees Ratings Growth With 'Have I Got News For You'". LateNighter. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
  20. ↑ Sherri (September 26, 2024). Roy Wood Jr. | "Have I Got News for You" | Sherri | Full Interview . Retrieved October 2, 2024– via YouTube.
  21. ↑ Guide, British Comedy (October 17, 2024). "HIGNFY USA presenter Roy Wood Jr to guest host UK version". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.