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.
QI is a British comedy panel game quiz show for television created and co-produced by John Lloyd. The series currently airs on BBC Two and is presented by Sandi Toksvig. It features permanent panellist Alan Davies and three guest panellists per episode; the panellists are mostly comedians. The series was presented by Stephen Fry from its beginning in 2003 until 2016.
Blockbusters is a British television quiz show based upon an American quiz show of the same name. A solo player and a team of two answer trivia questions, clued up with an initial letter of the answer, to complete a path across or down a game board of hexagons.
8 Out of 10 Cats is a British comedy panel show that aired from 3 June 2005 to 17 January 2021. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2015, then More4 from 2016 to 2017, and finally E4 from 2017 to 2021. The show was hosted by Jimmy Carr and featured regular team captains Sean Lock, Dave Spikey, Jason Manford, Jon Richardson, Rob Beckett, Aisling Bea and Katherine Ryan.
Deal or No Deal is an Australian game show which originally broadcast on the Seven Network from 13 July 2003 to 4 October 2013, hosted by Andrew O'Keefe. On 29 January 2024, a reboot series premiered on Network 10, hosted by Grant Denyer. It was the first international version of the game show, after the original Miljoenenjacht from the Netherlands. It was the first of the versions to use the Deal or No Deal name.
Mark Andrew Watson is an English comedian, novelist and producer.
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.
Insert Name Here is a British comedy panel game show presented by Sue Perkins. The programme made its debut on BBC Two on 4 January 2016. In each episode two teams of three compete to answer questions about famous people, past and present, who have just one thing in common: they share the same name. The team captains are Josh Widdicombe and Richard Osman. The show was cancelled in February 2020 due to low viewership.
Pointless is a British television quiz show produced by Banijay subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode, four teams of two contestants attempt to find correct but obscure answers to four rounds of general knowledge questions, with the winning team eligible to compete for the show's cash jackpot.
The Bubble is a British television quiz show hosted by David Mitchell, and made for the BBC by Hat Trick Productions. Each week, three comedians are tasked to differentiate real news stories from fake ones, after four days of isolation in 'The Bubble', a remote country house. A first series was broadcast on BBC Two from 19 February 2010, running for six episodes. A second series was planned but later abandoned due to Mitchell's commitments to the Channel 4 series 10 O'Clock Live.
A League of Their Own is a British sports-based comedy panel game show that was first broadcast on Sky One on 11 March 2010. The show is currently hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and features Jamie Redknapp and Jill Scott as team captains and Micah Richards and Mo Gilligan as regular panellists.
Comedy World Cup is a British television comedy panel game produced by Open Mike Productions for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 15 September 2012 and last broadcast on 27 October 2012. The show is presented by David Tennant and features two teams of celebrities, consisting of a captain and two guests. In each episode the teams compete in seven rounds about British and American comedy. The show is a knock-out tournament with the winners of the first four episodes progressing into the semi-finals, and the winners of each of them compete in the final for the eponymous Comedy World Cup.
@midnight with Chris Hardwick is an American late night Internet-themed panel game show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, that aired Monday through Thursday nights between October 21, 2013, and August 4, 2017, on Comedy Central. It was syndicated internationally in Australia on SBS2 and The Comedy Channel, in the United Kingdom on Comedy Central Extra, and in Canada formerly on MuchMusic and later on The Comedy Network.
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of Countdown, but presented in a comedy panel show format seen on 8 Out of 10 Cats, with the show being a crossover of the two.
Play to the Whistle is a British sports comedy panel game show that aired on ITV from 11 April 2015 to 4 April 2017. A rip-off of Sky's A League of Their Own, each episode saw two teams of three compete in sports knowledge rounds and physical games to achieve points for their teams, with the team with the most points at the end declared the winner.
Taskmaster is a British comedy panel game show created by comedian and musician Alex Horne and presented by both Horne and Greg Davies. In the programme, a group of five celebrities – mainly comedians – attempt to complete a series of challenges, with Horne acting as umpire in each challenge and Davies, the titular "Taskmaster", judging the work and awarding points based on contestants' performances. The concept for the programme was first created by Horne for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010; he later secured a deal with Dave to adapt it for television with the first episode premiering in 2015. After the ninth series in 2019, the programme was acquired by Channel 4. The programme has completed seventeen series as well as three Champion of Champions specials and five New Year Treat one-offs by January 2025, and is set to continue for at least three more series until 2026.
Don't Ask Me Ask Britain is a British television comedy panel game show that has aired on ITV from 18 April until 23 May 2017 and is hosted by Alexander Armstrong with Frank Skinner and Jonathan Ross as the team captains. The series is produced by Chalkboard TV for ITV. The goal is for the two teams to second-guess what the viewers will vote for in various questions by using an app and voting along live.
Hypothetical is a British television comedy panel show created by British comedian Josh Widdicombe, with Tom Craine and Matthew Crosby. Widdicombe hosts the show alongside fellow comedian James Acaster. The TV series features teams of celebrity guests, who are presented with a bizarre hypothetical situation by Widdicombe. The guests must explain how they would deal with the situation, following the rules given by Acaster, who then awards points based on how well he thinks they have done. The show ran for four series, from 6 February 2019 to 6 July 2022.
