Richard Osman's House of Games

Last updated

Richard Osman's House of Games
Richard Osman's House of Games.jpeg
Also known asHouse of Games
Genre Quiz show
Directed by
  • Ollie Bartlett
  • John Smith
Presented by Richard Osman
Theme music composer Marc Sylvan
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series8
No. of episodes605
Production
Executive producers
  • Alexandra McLeod
  • Tamara Gilder
  • Richard Hague
  • Stephen Lovelock
ProducerStuart Harrison
Production locations
dock10 studios (2024–present)
Camera setup Multiple-camera setup
Running time30 minutes
Production companyRemarkable Entertainment
Original release
Network
  • BBC Two (Richard Osman's House of Games)
  • BBC One (Richard Osman's House of Games Night)
Release4 September 2017 (2017-09-04) 
present
Related
Richard Osman's House of Games Night

Richard Osman's House of Games is a British quiz show hosted by Richard Osman and produced by Banijay UK Productions subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC. The show is played on a weekly basis, with four celebrities playing on five consecutive days to win daily prizes, and the weekly prize of being crowned as "House of Games" champion. Points are accrued depending on where each celebrity finishes on each day and the points are doubled on Friday's show. [2]

Contents

Format

Osman sits on a chair to the left of the screen, while the four celebrities sit on individual chairs. Osman hits a button on his table, activating a round generator, which is displayed on a big screen. He then explains what the round is about and in what format it will take place. For instance, whether it is a buzzer round, a pairs round or one where the players require use of their tablet computers. Five rounds are played each day, with the second round being played in pairs, and the final round always being "Answer Smash". The first round is quick general knowledge questions with a comic twist, such as rhyming words. The fourth round is typically "slow", where the question takes several minutes to be answered, and only one contestant receives a single point each time. In most games, a point is awarded for each correct answer, but in "Answer Smash", points are also deducted for incorrect answers.

At the end of each day, the scores are announced and the winner wins a daily prize, which is usually a normal everyday object of some description with the "House of Games" logo imprinted on it (the logo being a turquoise-blue background with a depiction of Osman's hair, eyebrows and glasses). The points are then converted to four points for the winner, three for second place, two for third place and one for fourth place onto the weekly leader board with the points doubling to 8, 6, 4 and 2 for Friday's "Double Points Friday" edition. The weekly winner receives the "House of Games" trophy (a silver cup with the Osman depiction on it) from Osman. If there are 2 players tied for first place at the end of the week, both players are declared joint-winners and win a trophy each. In more recent episodes, a tie for first place is resolved by a tie-break question; the first to buzz-in wins if they answer correctly or their opponent wins if they answer incorrectly.

Starting with Series 3, special "House of Champions" episodes aired featuring players who had previously won a daily or weekly edition of the show coming back for another week to fight for the Gold Champions Trophy. There were also daily prizes, which were similar to the prizes on the regular version of the show, however, they were mainly gold, rather than the turquoise-blue colour. In Series 6 and 7, there were also special "Redemption" weeks with four previous losing contestants who had never won a day prize.

A week's worth of shows is recorded on a single day, so the celebrities are booked for only one day, [3] changing outfits between shows.

Games

Buzzer games

Individual games

Pairs games

Random games

Tablet games

Final round

Answer Smash is played in the final round (5)

Contestants

Weekly winners in bold.

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Series 5

Series 6

Series 7

Series 8

House of Champions

Series 3
Series 5
Series 6
Series 7

Redemption Week

Series 6
Series 7

Festive

Festive Series 1

Festive Series 2

Festive Series 3

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
14 September 2017 [4] 22 September 2017 [5] 15 [5]
228 May 2018 [6] 14 December 2018 [7] 50 [7]
37 October 2019 [8] 13 March 2020 [9] 100 [9]
412 October 2020 [10] 12 March 2021 [11] 100 [11]
516 August 2021 [12] 29 April 2022 [13] 140 [13]
65 September 2022 [14] 3 February 2023 [15] 100 [15]
725 September 2023 [16] 1 March 2024100
823 September 2024TBA 2025TBA

Spin-offs

Richard Osman's House of Games Night

On 20 November 2020, Osman launched a five-episode spin-off called Richard Osman's House of Games Night, broadcast weekly in primetime on BBC One. [17] A one-episode Christmas Special aired on 28 December 2020. [18] A second series, consisting of six episodes, began on 1 October 2021. [19]

The series follows the exact same format as the main show, but with the addition of rounds not seen in the original. There are no double points in the final episode. Series 2 features a house band led by David O'Doherty. In 2022, House of Games Night was cancelled after two series.

New games

  • Don't Cry for Me Guatemala
  • Don't Trust the Experts
  • Clash in the Attic
  • Sounding Off
  • This Music Round's Better with You
  • Is There a Doctor in the House of Games?
  • I've Got the Historical Blues
  • Arty-Facts
  • It's Not Me, It's You
  • Get Your Head in the Game
  • Here's One You Asked Yourself Earlier
  • Famous Last Words
  • Get Your Junk Out
  • Weigh Up Your Options
  • Coming Up Next...

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
120 November 202018 December 2020 [20] 5 [17]
Christmas Special28 December 20201 [18]
21 October 20215 November 2021 [21] 6 [19]

Contestants

Merchandise

On 17 October 2019, Osman and Alan Connor published Richard Osman's House of Games: 101 new & classic games from the hit BBC series, a quizbook based on the programme. [22]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 This person finished on a negative score during one episode this week.
  2. 1 2 This week had all five episodes won by the same person.
  3. The highest (Thursday) and second highest (Friday) single episode score.

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References

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  13. 1 2 "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 5, Episode 140". BBC Online . Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  14. "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 6, Episode 1". BBC Online . Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  15. 1 2 "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 6, Episode 100". BBC Online . Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  16. "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 7, Episode 1". BBC Online . Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  17. 1 2 "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Episode 1".
  18. 1 2 "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Christmas Special".
  19. 1 2 "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 2, Episode 1".
  20. "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Episode 5".
  21. "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 2, Episode 6".
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