United States The first known example of a panel show 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. American panel shows transferred to television early in the medium's history, with the first known example being
Play the Game, a
charades show that aired on
DuMont and
ABC beginning in 1946. The celebrity charades concept has been replicated numerous times since then. The most popular adaptation was
Pantomime Quiz, airing from 1947 to 1959, and having runs on each of the four television networks operating at the time. Other charades shows have included
Stump the Stars;
Movietown, RSVP;
Celebrity Charades;
Showoffs and
Body Language. TV panel shows saw their peak of popularity in the 1950s and '60s, when
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 American television, and they continue to experience occasional
revivals. 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. Their cancellations came as attention to
demographics and a focus on younger viewers gained currency among advertisers. 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. Later years saw several successes in the format, with
Match Game;
The Hollywood Squares;
Win, Lose or Draw;
Celebrity Sweepstakes;
Password and
Pyramid primarily running in the daytime and airing in their greatest numbers during the '70s and '80s. These panel shows marked a shift in the format: whereas CBS' primetime shows had panelists guessing secrets about the guests, these new shows largely featured civilian contestants either playing games in teams with celebrity partners, competing to predict how the panelists would respond to a question or prompt, or determining whether the panelist answered a question correctly. Later,
Nickelodeon premiered the youth-oriented panel game
Figure it Out in 1997, the American version of
Whose Line Is It Anyway? had a primetime run from 1998 to 2004 on
ABC and a revival in 2013 by
The CW, while ''
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' has become a popular weekend show on
NPR since 1998. From 2002 to 2025, the sports channel
ESPN broadcast
Around the Horn as part of its daytime block of sports news and discussion shows. While presented as ostensibly being a
roundtable debate show, the series did contain some game show-like elements; the panel of
sports journalists earned points from the host based on the strength of their responses to specific topics (and could also mute panelists, if needed), with the lowest scorers eliminated at points throughout the show. The winner received 30 seconds at the end of the show to discuss any topic they wanted. In 2015, ABC announced primetime revivals for
Match Game, which ran from 2016 until 2021, and
To Tell the Truth, which ran from 2016 to 2022. From 2013 to 2017,
Comedy Central aired
@midnight, an internet culture and
social media-themed panel game which used a more quiz show-styled presentation—with the celebrity guests buzzing in to earn points from the host for punchlines and responses in various segments. In 2024, a reboot of the show, now titled
After Midnight and hosted by
Taylor Tomlinson, premiered on
CBS. The streaming service
Dropout has received attention for many of its shows' similarities to panel shows, notably
Game Changer—a comedy game show with differing objectives in each episode, and the panelists not being given any advance knowledge of what the exact objective will be.
United Kingdom Panel shows are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they have found continued success since the
BBC adapted its first radio panel shows from classic parlor games. and
My Music from 1967 to 1994. The British version of ''
What's My Line? may have been the first television panel show in the UK, with an original run from 1951 to 1963 and several remakes in later years. The word game Call My Bluff aired from 1965 to 2005, the charades show Give Us a Clue ran from 1979 to 1992, and the improv game Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' aired from 1988 to 1998. Current British panel shows have become showcases for the nation's top stand-up and improv comedians, as well as career-making opportunities for new comedians. The show's success grew after its transfer from
BBC Two to the flagship
BBC One in 2000. After
HIGNFY's success, panel shows proliferated on British TV. Notable examples include
QI on various BBC channels since 2003,
Mock the Week on BBC Two from 2005 to 2022 and
TLC from 2026,
8 Out of 10 Cats on
Channel 4 since 2005,
Would I Lie to You? on BBC One since 2007,
Taskmaster on Channel 4 since 2020, and the annual special,
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year on Channel 4 since 2004. On the radio,
The News Quiz,
Just a Minute, ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and The Unbelievable Truth'' are among the most popular and long-running panel shows, all of which air on BBC Radio 4. British comedy panel shows feature mainly male guests. A 2016 study that analysed 4,700 episodes from 1967 to 2016 found that 1,488 of them had an all-male lineup, and
only one an all-female cast. The proportion of women rose from 3% in 1989 to 31% in 2016.
Australia Australian panel shows include advertising-focused
The Gruen Transfer and its various spinoffs on
ABC1 since 2008, the music quiz
Spicks and Specks on ABC1 from 2005 to 2011 and again since 2014, news quiz
Have You Been Paying Attention? on Network Ten since 2013, and tabloid quiz
Dirty Laundry Live on ABC1 and
ABC2 since 2013. News quiz
Good News Week aired on ABC1 from 1996 to 1998 and on Network Ten from 1999-2000 and again from 2008 to 2012, sports quiz
A League of Their Own aired on
Network Ten in 2013, and pop culture quiz
Tractor Monkeys aired on ABC1 in 2013.
New Zealand Currently running New Zealand panel shows include the news quiz
7 Days since 2009,
Have You Been Paying Attention? New Zealand since 2019,
Taskmaster New Zealand since 2020, and ''
Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' since 2023.
Canada CBC Radio One currently broadcasts two long-running radio panel shows:
The Debaters, which debuted in 2006, and
Because News, which debuted in 2015. In 2022,
Noovo began broadcasting
Le maître du jeu, a local
French language adaptation of
Taskmaster.
Former shows In 2014,
Super Channel ordered 36 episodes of a panel show called
Too Much Information. A revival of
Match Game aired on
The Comedy Network from 2012 to 2014, the news quiz
Front Page Challenge aired on
CBC Television from 1957 to 1995, and the charades show
Party Game aired in syndication from 1970 to 1981.
France French panel shows include '
("Friday, Everything Goes"), an improv game on TF1 since 2011. Earlier panel shows include ', a linguistic game on
ORTF and TF1 from 1969 to 1981; ''
("The Academy of Nine"), based on Hollywood Squares
on Antenne 2 from 1982 to 1987; Cluedo, based on the board game Cluedo/Clue on France 3 from 1994 to 1995; Burger Quiz'' on
Canal + from 2001 to 2002; '
("Incredible Experiences"), about scientific experiments on France 2 and France 3 from 2008 to 2012; and ' ("Sofa Quiz"), an adaptation of Hollywood Game Night on
TMC in 2014.
Germany German panel shows include
7 Tage, 7 Köpfe ("7 Days, 7 Heads"),
Genial daneben ("Idiot Savant"),
Kopfball ("Headball"),
Die Montagsmaler ("Pictionary"),
Noch Besserwissen ("Even Better Knowledge"),
Pssst … (similar to ''I've Got A Secret
), 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 Think?").
Japan Early
Japanese panel shows include
話の泉 ("Source of the Story"), based on
Information Please on
NHK Radio 1 from 1946 to 1964;
二十の扉 ("Twenty Doors"), based on
Twenty Questions on NHK Radio 1 from 1947 to 1960;
ジェスチャー ("Gestures"), a charades show on
NHK General TV from 1953 to 1968; and
私の秘密 ("My Secret"), based on ''I've Got a Secret'' on NHK General TV from 1956 to 1967. Currently, a wide variety of
Japanese variety shows are popular, and many of them feature
owarai comedians,
Japanese idols, and other celebrities playing games. Some games involve bizarre physical stunts.
Brain Wall, adapted in English-speaking countries as
Hole in the Wall, has comedians attempt to jump through oddly shaped holes in moving walls without falling into water,
DERO and its successor
TORE have celebrities solve mental and physical challenges to escape traps and hazards or presumably die trying,
VS Arashi has a team of celebrities compete against J-pop group
Arashi and their Plus One guest(s) in physical games,
Nep League has various celebrity teams competing in various quizzes that test their combined brainpower in the fields of Japanese, English, General Knowledge, Etc., and
AKBingo! similarly features members of pop group
AKB48 and others competing in physical challenges and quizzes. Other shows include
日本語探Qバラエティ クイズ!それマジ!?ニッポン ("Is it really!?"), a celebrity word game;
くりぃむクイズ ミラクル9 ("Miracle 9"), a show somewhat similar to Hollywood Squares;
Numer0n, a celebrity numbers game; and
オールスター感謝祭 ("All Star Thanksgiving"), a semi-annual celebrity quiz. There are many other games featuring celebrities within Japan's variety genre.
Prime Minister Ōta is a show featuring many comedians and politicians debating fictional proposals in a sort of game show version of a legislative chamber. ==Examples==