Telly Addicts

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Telly Addicts
Telly Addicts Title Screen.jpg
Genre Game show
Presented by Noel Edmonds
Starring Charles Collingwood (1994–1996)
Voices of Maria McErlane (1997–1998)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series13
No. of episodes229 [1]
Production
Production location Pebble Mill Studios [2]
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesBBC Pebble Mill (1985–1996)
BBC Birmingham in association with Unique Television (1997–1998)
Original release
Network BBC1
Release3 September 1985 (1985-09-03) 
29 July 1998 (1998-07-29)
Related
As Seen on TV

Telly Addicts was a British television game show hosted by Noel Edmonds that aired on BBC One from 3 September 1985 to 29 July 1998. All questions were based on television programmes past and present, and generally took the form of a short clip being shown followed by a series of questions either specifically about the clip or more generally about the programme from which it had been taken. Two teams sat opposite each other on sofas. The final series in 1998 had three teams of two players.

Contents

Formats

1985–1986

The original format had two teams of four people with a winner-stays-on format. The challengers had to try to beat the champions to win and return as the champions in the next show, whilst the champions were simply playing to retain their title. This backfired somewhat after a single family, the Pain family, managed to last almost the entire series.

1987–1996

The format changed to a tournament format, (most likely because of the aforementioned single family in the first series). It involved 16 teams in eight qualifying heats. The eight winning teams of the qualifying heats would go on into the quarter-finals; the four winning teams of the quarter-finals would go into the semi-finals; the two winning teams of the semi-finals would proceed to the grand final, and the winning team of the grand final became the champions. After the main series, it was quite normal for the series winners to return to take part in a special game, usually broadcast over Christmas, where they would go up against a team of celebrities.

1997–1998

There was no series in 1997. The show returned in 1998 with a massive revamp with new rounds and rules. Instead of two teams, there were now three teams of two players and the tournament format was dropped. These changes were first seen in a special Christmas celebrity edition in 1997 before a full series commenced the following year, before finally ending for good on 29 July 1998.

Rounds in the 1998 version

Spin offs

The Telly Addicts format was re-used in 2002 for the UK subscription TV channel Challenge in the form of quiz shows Soap Addicts, hosted by Malandra Burrows and Richard Arnold. However, the programme was not recommissioned after its 2003 series. Sport Addicts also existed and was hosted by Bradley Walsh and Celebrity Addicts was hosted by Lisa Rogers and Richard Arnold. Soap Addicts was when teams had to answer questions about famous soaps with clips and pictures. Sport Addicts also followed this but with teams answering questions about sports with clips and pictures and Celebrity Addicts was teams answering questions about celebrities with clips and pictures.

In 2021, Paul Sinha's TV Showdown debuted on ITV, which is described as an updated version of Telly Addicts. The programme licenses the Telly Addicts format from owners Unique Television. [3]

Games

Waddingtons produced two board game editions of "Telly Addicts" in 1989 and 1992 respectively. Three Interactive DVDs based on the Telly Addicts show were produced, featuring original presenter Noel Edmonds. The first was released in Autumn 2005, the second in Autumn 2006 and the third in Autumn 2007.

A Telly Addicts video game for Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PSP and PS2 was published by Ubisoft on 9 November 2007.

A Telly Addicts app was also released for iOS in 2012, published by Island Wall Entertainment. The app has since been delisted. [4]

Transmissions

Series

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodesPresenter
13 September 1985 [1] 24 December 1985 [1] 17 [1] Noel Edmonds
26 September 1986 [1] 23 December 1986 [1] 17 [1]
312 September 1987 [1] 29 December 1987 [1] 17 [1]
430 August 1988 [1] 23 December 1988 [1] 17 [1]
54 September 1989 [1] 24 December 1989 [1] 17 [1]
63 September 1990 [1] 29 December 1990 [1] 17 [1]
72 September 1991 [1] 26 December 1991 [1] 17 [1]
88 September 1992 [1] 28 December 1992 [1] 17 [1]
96 September 1993 [1] 29 December 1993 [1] 17 [1]
1012 September 1994 [1] 27 February 1995 [1] 24 [1]
114 September 1995 [1] 28 December 1995 [1] 17 [1]
122 September 1996 [1] 23 December 1996 [1] 17 [1]
132 March 1998 [1] 29 July 1998 [1] 16 [1]

Specials

DateEntitlePresenter
5 September 1994 [1] Ten Years of Telly Addicts [1] Noel Edmonds
29 December 1997 [1] Christmas Special [1]

International versions

Telly Addicts was adapted twice for the French market. Allume la télé! was an adaptation of the original format. Les Cinglés de la télé was based on the 1998 format.

Country/languageLocal titleHostChannelDate aired/premiered
Flag of France.svg France Allume la télé !
("Turn on the telly!")
Bernard Montiel  [ fr ] and Annie Pujol  [ fr ] (season 1)
Ivan Frésard  [ fr ] and Annie Pujol (season 2)
TF1 30 March 1996
Flag of France.svg France Les Cinglés de la télé
("TV Freaks")
Gérard Holtz France 2 4 April 1999

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 "Telly Addicts (a Guests & Air Dates Guide)". epguides . Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  2. "Old BBC Regional Production Studios". TV Studio History. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  3. "Hat Trick Int'l to shop Livewire's 'TV Showdown' celebrity quiz format". TBI Vision. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  4. "Telly Addicts - the Official TV Show App". 4 December 2012.