A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates.[1] Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/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 in the United States.[2] While panel shows were more popular in the past in the U.S., they are still very common in the United Kingdom.[3]
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Most games, such as Mock the Week or Hollywood Squares, are humorous, while others, such as Face The Music, are more serious. Often, the competition and points are a formality, while comedic banter provides much of the entertainment.[4] The American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? acknowledged this with the introduction, "Welcome to Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." On QI, the questions are so hard, points can be given for interesting discussion, even if the answers are wrong.
Panel games often have a theme. Some are satirical, such as Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! or Have I Got News for You. 8 Out of 10 Cats is based on statistics, What's My Line? is about occupations, Quote... Unquote features quotations, I've Got a Secret is about secrets, while Would I Lie to You? and The Unbelievable Truth deal with lies.
Some panel games are variants on classic parlor games.[5] Twenty Questions is based on the parlor game of the same name, Give Us a Clue is modeled after Charades, and Call My Bluff and Balderdash are based on Fictionary.
Frequently, a panel show features recurring panelists. Some panelists also appear on multiple panel shows.[6]
Most shows are recorded in front of a studio audience.
Panel games are so popular in Britain that they have been the subject of satire themselves. I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a panel game that spoofs many common elements of such shows, including the unimportance of scoring, while Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive is a scripted comedy series that parodies the workings of a panel show.
The first known example of a panel game in the world is the radio program Information Please, which debuted on 17 May 1938 on the NBC Blue Network. An evolution of the quiz show format, Information Please added the key element of a panel of celebrities, largely writers and intellectuals, but also actors and politicians. Listeners would mail in questions, winning prizes for stumping the panel.
U.S. panel games transferred to television and saw their peak of popularity in the 1950s and '60s, when, in addition to shorter-lived series on other networks, CBS ran the three longest-running panel shows in prime time: What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth. At times, they were among the top ten shows on U.S. television and they continue to experience occasional revivals on daytime television and on cable. All three Goodson-Todman primetime shows were cancelled by CBS in 1967 amid ratings declines and trouble attracting younger viewers, although the programs were consistently profitable by being among the cheapest television shows to produce.[7][8] Their cancellations came as attention to demographics and a focus on younger viewers gained currency among advertisers.[9] The departures of these three New York-based shows were also part of a mass migration of television production to Los Angeles, leaving only one primetime show produced on the East Coast.[8][10]
Later years saw several successes in the format, with Match Game;[11] Hollywood Squares;[12][13][14][15][16] The Gong Show;[17] Win, Lose or Draw; Celebrity Sweepstakes; Password[18] and Pyramid primarily running in the daytime and airing in their greatest numbers during the '70s and '80s. Later, the U.S. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? had a primetime run from 1998 to 2004 on ABC, while Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! has become a popular weekend show on NPR since 1998. In 2010, NBC's launch of The Marriage Ref was described as a revival of the primetime American panel game.[19][20] In 2011, BBC America debuted Would You Rather...? with Graham Norton, a panel game recorded in the United States,[21] as well as a television special of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me![22]
Panel games are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they've found continued success since the BBC adapted its first radio panel shows from classic parlor games.[3][5] Perhaps the earliest UK panel show is the BBC radio adaptation of Twenty Questions, which debuted on 28 February 1947. Panel games have enjoyed lasting success in the UK; Twenty Questions lasted until 1976, while Just a Minute has been on the air since 1967. Other long-running games on radio include I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue since 1972, The News Quiz from 1977, and My Word! from 1956 to 1990.
The British import of What's My Line? may be the first television panel game in the UK, with an original run from 1951 to 1963, and several remakes in later years.
Current British panel games have largely become showcases for the nation's top stand-up comedians, with comedy the primary objective of the games. Top television panel shows include Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You?, QI, Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats. Many of the top panel shows air on BBC One, though BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Sky1 and others have all had successes in the format. The News Quiz, Just a Minute, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and The Unbelievable Truth are just a few of many panel shows on radio, mostly, but not exclusively, airing on BBC Radio 4.
Australian panel games include Good News Week, Gruen Planet, and Spicks and Specks.
Canadian panel games include Front Page Challenge and The Debaters.
French panel games include L'Académie des neuf ("The Academy of Nine", based on Hollywood Squares), Burger Quiz, Cluedo (based on Cluedo/Clue), Le Francophonissime, Incroyables Expériences ("Incredible Experiences") and Kamoulox (a portmanteau of the creators' names).
German panel games include Genial daneben ("Idiot Savant"), Kopfball ("Headball"), Die Montagsmaler ("Pictionary"), Noch Besserwissen ("Even Better Knowledge"), Die Pyramide (the German version of Pyramid), Quizfire, Sag die Wahrheit ("Tell the Truth", the German version of To Tell the Truth), Typisch Frau – Typisch Mann ("Typical Woman – Typical Man"), Was bin ich? ("What am I?", the German version of What's My Line?) and Was denkt Deutschland? ("What Does Germany Do?").
Japanese panel games include おしゃべりクイズ疑問の館 ("Chat House Quiz Questions"), 二十の扉 ("Twenty Doors", based on Twenty Questions), 話の泉 ("Source of the Story", based on Information Please), ABOBAゲーム ("ABOBA Game"), 一攫千金ヤマワケQ! ("Yamawake Fortune Q!"), おっちゃんVSギャル ("Uncle vs. Gal"), クイズ仕事人 ("Business People Quiz"), クイズ!紳助くん ("Shinsuke-kun Quiz"), 3・3が9イズ ("3.3 is 9", based on Hollywood Squares), 世界痛快伝説!!運命のダダダダーン! ("Thrilling World Legend! Fate! Da-da-da-da!") and 世界痛快伝説!!運命のダダダダーン! ("Thrilling World Legend! Destiny! Da-da-da-da!").