Back in the 1950s and 1960s, shows like To Tell The Truth, What’s My Line, and I’ve Got A Secret were ruling CBS’s airwaves in the United States. They are all examples of panel game shows. These types of shows may be played solely with celebrities. Sometimes, they have a mixture of celebrities and regular civilians. Some offer prizes or maybe donations to charities, while others are played for the fun of it.
In recent years, classic American panel shows like Match Game and To Tell The Truth have both made a comeback on ABC, to great success. Although, where panel shows are most popular, which is the United Kingdom, their style hasn't really resonated with a U.S. audience. Now, two new shows Game On! and The Great Debate are using British panel show motifs fit for American audiences.
British Beginnings
The United Kingdom saw a rise in panel shows at the same time. However, everything changed in 1990, when BBC Two premiered a new comedic take on classic panel shows. It was called Have I Got News For You and it became a success that even transferred to BBC One ten years later. This show is still running today. HIGNFY takes two teams and quizzes them on the week's news.
Typically, most British panel shows are formatted with two teams, with two to three players sitting behind desks on either side of the stage. There is usually a host behind a desk in the middle. There are variations on the format and setup sometimes. A host may be on one side, with all the players on the other side competing individually.
Since then, shows like Would I Lie To You? and 8 Out of 10 Cats have become long-running hits, thanks to simple premises like deciphering truths from lies and recent opinion polls. Having basic parlor game-style themes lead to hilarious banter between panelists. These panelists are generally celebrities like comedians, actors, and reality stars.
Attempts In The U.S.
Since the population of panel shows in the U.K., several British formats have been attempted Stateside, to mostly minimal success. The most successful British to American translation has been Whose Line Is It Anyway? Running from 1998 to 2004 on ABC, and until 2007 on ABC Family. In 2013, it was revived for The CW. On The CW, Whose Line Is It Anyway? is still running as a popular show during the summer and mid-season.
Other shows like Taskmaster, which has been hugely successful across the pond, made nary a splash when a U.S. version aired on Comedy Central in 2018. The show sees five comedians compete across the season in various inane and random tasks. They attempt to become the champions. The show was watered down from its British counterpart and shortened from an hour to a half-hour. This left little room for interaction among the contestants. While the Comedy Central version only lasted one season, the U.K. version will be airing on The CW in August, in an attempt to fill airtime due to COVID-19 shutting down productions across the industry.
Netflix has even attempted the panel show genre with The Fix, hosted by U.K. panel show favorite Jimmy Carr. The show saw two teams of two, one captained by comedian D.L. Hughley and the other by comedian Katherine Ryan, offering solutions to the world’s biggest problems. Examples of those problems include gun control and global warming. The Fix stayed true to the British sensibility, focusing on how the topic drives banter among the teams. It also lasted only one season.
When asked about why panel shows aren’t popular in the U.S., The Fix and 8 Out of 10 Cats host Jimmy Carr responded, “It’s an odd thing, I think the received wisdom was always ‘Well it's gotta be a competition’ and we just kind of play parlor games here and we know it’s not important who wins. It’s just a bit of fun to give it some narrative and there it’d be too competitive and then we went and made one in Hollywood and it was absolutely fine and it works as a show. So hopefully, [America] will do some more of it now.”
Bridging The Gap
In October 2019, CBS announced that it will be adapting the popular British show, A League of Their Own. Not to be confused with the Penny Marshall-directed film of the same name, the show pits two teams against each other through various rounds of sport-themed games and trivia. The U.K. show was hosted from its start in 2010 by the current host of CBS’ The Late Late Show, James Corden. He hosted until 2019. Then, he left to focus on his commitments in the USA and was replaced by guest hosts. Corden’s production company Fulwell 73 was also announced to produce the U.S. version.
Less than a month later, it was announced that comedian and actor Keegan Michael-Key will host the show, now titled Game On!, with Rob Gronkowski and Venus Williams acting as the all-star team captains. They are each joined by comedians Bobby Lee and Ian Karmel, as permanent panelists. The show premiered in at the end of May, thus becoming the one first British-based panel shows to premiere on network television in recent years.
The British version follows more of the traditional route of using the theme of sports to spark conversation and banter, while Game On! trades in most of the conversation for games and stunts among the teams, leaving the chit-chat to a minimum. The British version doesn't shy away from stunt-based games; however, they only do one competition at the end of the show to determine the winner.
The Ultimate Compromise
SYFY WIRE’s The Great Debate on SYFY feels like the best version of a panel show you could get on traditional US television. Comedian Baron Vaughn hosts four celebrity panelists who debate everything from pop, nerd, and geek culture. The panelists are different every week, so there are no team captains, and no designated teams, really. All that being said, this show has the potential to be the blueprint for American-style British panel shows that don’t sacrifice conversation for action. There's a lot of chat for a half-hour, the panelists frequently interact with each other and there’s not really any mini-games that completely eliminate conversation.
Panel shows are an interesting thing in the U.S. We have them, our own version, and they're fun and successful. While the U.K. has its own version and they are fun and successful. It just boils down to different sensibilities in comedy and television and what the respective country’s audiences want and respond to. What works here doesn't always work there. Sometimes it works in both, and other times it just doesn't work at all. The medium of television is always changing and evolving and panel shows will do just the same along with it. Game On! is on Wednesdays on CBS and SYFY WIRE’s The Great Debate airs Thursday’s on SYFY
Source: Jimmy Carr