Challenge | |
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Launched | 1 September 1993 |
Owned by | British Sky Broadcasting |
Picture format | 16:9, 576i (SDTV) |
Audience share | 0.5% 0.1% (+1) (August 2011, BARB) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Formerly called | The Family Channel (1993-1997) Challenge TV (1997-2002) Challenge? (2002-2003) |
Sister channel(s) | Pick TV, Sky1, Sky2, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Livingit, Sky Living Loves, Sky Movies, Sky Movies Box Office, Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Sports News |
Timeshift service | Challenge +1 |
Website | Official Website |
Availability | |
Terrestrial | |
Freeview | Channel 46 |
BT Vision | Channel 46 |
Satellite | |
Sky | Channel 125 Channel 164 (+1) |
Cable | |
Virgin Media | Channel 139 Channel 140 (+1) |
WightCable | Channel 42/115 |
Smallworld Cable | Channel 129 |
IPTV | |
TalkTalk TV | Channel 46 |
Freewire | Channel 125 |
Internet television | |
TVCatchup | Watch live (UK only) |
Challenge is a United Kingdom digital TV channel that mostly airs programmes dedicated to gameshows. It is owned by British Sky Broadcasting. The channel mostly transmits repeats of programmes acquired from UK terrestrial channel archives (e.g. BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5) and a few from around the world (e.g. NBC (USA), Nine Network (Australia), M-Net (South Africa)), with a few original productions commissioned by the channel itself.
Contents |
The station was originally called The Family Channel. From its launch on 1 September 1993 to 31 January 1997, the channel aired a mixture of genre shows mainly including sitcoms, game shows, dramas and entertainment. The station come about when TVS was sold on 1 February 1993 to the American Company International Family Entertainment Inc. which included the ownership of MTM Enterprises. IFE subsequently launched a UK version of The Family Channel based in The Maidstone Studios and using some elements of the TVS programme archive. Flextech were a partner in the venture, taking a 39% stake in the business.[1]
The Family Channel did produce some UK original programming (see below), but heavily relied upon content from MTM Enterprises/TVS archive and imports from the USA. It was claimed that the channel produced more original series worldwide than any other cable or satellite network.
In 1996, IFE sold its remaining 61% share to Flextech, giving them full ownership of the venture. On 1 February 1997, Flextech re-branded the channel to Challenge TV, focusing mainly on game shows. Between this interim period, the channel introduced a new strand called "Family Challenge Weekend".
During the week, The Family Channel continued to broadcast its wide range of programmes, but during the weekend, live in-vision presenters were introduced with chances to win prizes, with all of the programmes being quiz/gameshows. Unfortunately, the deal did not include any of the programme archive which included many TVS game shows, such as Catchphrase and All Clued Up, but the channel did continually broadcast these series until 2000.
On 1 February 1997, The Family Channel was re-branded as Challenge TV and mainly focuses on gameshows taken from a variety of terrestrial and digital channel archives. Among the few non-gameshows, it has aired the short-lived U.S. drama Dr. Vegas in 2005, and also the 1995 crime drama film Casino.
The channel was originally a primetime block from 17:00 to 00:00 and shared its channel slot with The Children's Channel (which closed on 3 April 1998) and TV Travel Shop until 1999, which resulted in Challenge being able to broadcast 24 hours a day. From 1997 to 1998, between 00:30 and 06:00, the channel was branded as "Family Late" which continued to broadcast series from the old Family Channel schedule.
When Challenge TV started, a strand called Prize Time was introduced. It was originally hosted by Andy Crane, Andrea Boardman and Pat Sharp. Carryl Varley and Kevin Duala joined later on in the year.
The channel also aired some poker game shows including World Poker Tour, Celebrity Blackjack and Casino Casino, this also launched a very short-lived spin-off channel in 2006, Player (which was replaced just several months later by Bravo 2), it mainly focused on the poker-related programming that Challenge had transmitted. Challenge only aired programmes in the letterbox format (4:3), but on 3 June 2008, it switched to the widescreen format (16:9) along with all other Living TV Group channels. This was coupled with a revamped logo and a new set of idents. The channel used to have interactive features for digital cable and satellite viewers watching certain shows, enabling them to play along at home, and it used to offer many games and competitions before the start of each programme, during commercial breaks and after the end of each programme.
On 15 September 2010, it was announced that it will on an unconfirmed date close its sister channels Bravo, Bravo 2 and Channel One. Bravo, Bravo 2 and Challenge Jackpot closed on 1 January 2011 and Channel One closed a exactly a month later on 1 February 2011 and Channel One's Freeview space on the Freeview multiplex was used by Challenge to launch on the platform two days later. On 25 January 2011, it was confirmed that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling programming would start broadcasting on Challenge from 3 February 2011. It was also confirmed on the same day that the channel number for Freeview would be 46.[2][3][4][4]
Name of show | Originally aired | When aired by Challenge |
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Name of show | Originally aired | When aired by Challenge | Notes |
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Hosted by The Krypton Factor's Gordon Burns. Originally made for the BBC. |
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Based on an Australian format. |
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Presented by Bob Mercer (series 1) and Martin Kemp (series 2). |
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A variation of the Telly Addicts format. |
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A spin-off of Channel 4's Late Night Poker series. |
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Home video clip show presented by Richard Orford. |
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Comedy quiz show based around travel played by two teams of celebrities, hosted by Paul Coia. |
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Another Japanese game show. Used as a filler. It was last shown on Challenge in 2005 as part of 'Japanese Day'. |
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The UK version of the cult Japanese show, Za Gaman. |
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Short 15-minute segments of Za Gaman. It was hosted by Al Convey. It also featured the voices of Eiji Kusuhara (who was one of the two voiceovers for Banzai) and Ryozo Kohira. |
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A spin-off from Catchphrase. |
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A 10-part series featuring clips of the different versions of Fort Boyard from around the globe, it was presented by Tim Vine. |
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A phone-in segment. |
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Replaced by The Blurb. |
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A live phone-in segment. |
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Series featuring clips from classic gameshows. |
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Also replaced by The Blurb. |
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Another live phone-in segment. |
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A filler programme in which Japanese chefs cook unusual things. It was also the last programme to air on defunct sister channel Ftn. |
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Replacement for The Games Room. |
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Stuart Hall is the English voiceover replacing the Welsh voiceover. |
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Karaoke-themed game show, presented by various hosts, including Ted Robbins. |
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Used during the Japanese Christmas Cracker strand in December 2003. |
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A 10-minute filler. |
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Clip show featuring games played on Graham Norton's Channel 4 show, V Graham Norton. |
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Presented by Jesse May with commentary by Grub Smith. |
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Replaced by The Games Room. |
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7-minute pilot, presented by BBC Radio 1 DJ, Scott Mills. |
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Music-themed quiz show, presented by Keith Chegwin. |
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Challenge TV's version of Anglia Television's classic gameshow, it was presented by Keith Chegwin. |
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Hosted by one of Challenge's original continuity presenters, Andy Crane. |
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Family gameshow, presented by Andrew O'Connor. |
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Presented by Matt Brown. |
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Presented by Lisa Rogers. |
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Another variation of the Telly Addicts format. |
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Hosted by Aonghus McAnally. |
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Another variation of the Telly Addicts format. |
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Series featuring clips from various Japanese gameshows, presented by Julian Clary (series 1) and Craig Charles (series 2). |
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The UK version of the American gameshow, it was presented by Sarah Cawood. |
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A special programme featuring highlights of Yorkshire Television's classic gameshow. It was used during Challenge TV's 3-2-1 night in Christmas 2000. |
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Replaced both GameFace and Ginx Files, now only available through Ginx TV's website. |
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Late-night gameshow presented by Donna Air and Iain Coyle. |
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A short-lived replacement for Prize Time. |
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Short-lived game show, loosely based on the famous card game, presented by Andy Goldstein, only lasted 20 episodes. |
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Loosely based on the board game of the same name, it was presented by Tony Slattery. |
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Now airs on Kix!. |
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Challenge TV's version of Yorkshire Television's gameshow, it was presented by Bobby Davro. |
Name of show | Original channel(s) | Originally aired | When aired by Challenge |
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Name of show | Original channel(s) | Originally aired | When aired by Challenge | Notes |
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The series that Challenge shown in 2009 now airs on Sky Livingit. |
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Now airs on 4Music and Dave. |
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It also aired on Bravo. |
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Now airs on Quest. |
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Now airs on 4Music. |
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Now airs on The Africa Channel. |
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The show has also aired on FX. |
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Aired on Challenge under the title "World's Craziest Outdoor Outtakes". |
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Aired on Challenge TV from late 2001 to early 2003. |
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One of the shows that aired as part of Challenge's 'Caught on Camera' strand in 2004. |
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Still airs on Sky Poker. |
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Aired on Challenge under the title "Sticky Moments On Tour". |
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Aired on Challenge under the title "Celebrity TV Bloopers". |
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Now airs on 5USA. |
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Now airs on 4Music. |
Here is a list of the people who have presented or announced the programmes on Challenge over the years:
Presenters
Continuity announcers
Here is a list of the strands that Challenge has used over the years: