Impact of COVID-19

Revision as of 02:26, 18 April 2020

A number of game show productions were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shows

BBC1

• Have I Got News for You went ahead with filming within the participants' homes.
• Eurovision Song Contest will not take place this May. While the EBU has considered many options – a series behind closed doors, remote videos from each broadcaster's studio – none of them would deliver the experience. The EBU will make available a way to honour the chosen artists and songs, but the songs themselves will not be eligible for 2021. Also Eurovision Young Musicians has been postponed.

BBC2

• The production of a celebrity series of Race Across the World had to be postponed as a result of the outbreak.
• Episodes of QI were filmed with smaller audiences.
• Filming of Richard Osman's House of Games has been postponed.

ITV

• Saturday Night Takeaway was in the middle of a series when the outbreak became an inconvenience. The first two episodes went out as usual, the third went out with a disclaimer that the intended finale in Florida had been cancelled due to travel restrictions to and from the United States, the next two were aired without studio audiences and the last two were truncated compilation episodes filmed from Ant and Dec's houses, separated from each other, with In for a Penny brought forward by two weeks. In fairness, at least that series aired the correct number of episodes; its previous series lost an episode as a result of the rehabilitation of Ant McPartlin.
• The Voice UK was also mid-series when the pandemic was announced. Its heats finished airing, as they were halfway through anyway, with the live semi-final and final replaced by two "The Voice UK: Most Memorable Moments" compilation episodes.
• Britain's Got Talent - good god. ITV made the decision to go ahead with airing its heats, despite not being able to finish the series as a result of the pandemic. How quickly do you think this is all going to be over, and do you not think it a good idea to air the series in one block?

Channel 4

• Filming of The Great British Bake Off usually takes place from late April to early July, this year's series may yet make its traditional late-August start.
• Channel 4, with no studio arm, is at the mercy of the advertising industry, which has completely collapsed in the last few weeks; the publisher-broadcaster had to reduce its content budget by £150 million, about 25% of its entire expenditure. Junior Bake Off is off, at least for this year. It looks like the entertainment channel E4 will be badly hit, and there may be fewer commissions on More4. Not good news for fans of Jon Snow's Very Hard Questions, then.
• Countdown, already a couple of months behind schedule as a result of Rachel Riley's pregnancy, was forced to film ten episodes without an audience, and a further five episodes set to include Michael Whitehall as guardian of the dictionaries had to be axed.

Other

• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue lost four of the six episodes it was due to record in March as a result of the pandemic, which also felled one of its participants.

Miscellaneous

• Gag Tag series 2 team captain Eddie Large was felled by the virus.
• For the first time since 2011, new episodes of Pointless have had to be premiered on BBC2, bumped as a result of Coronavirus Daily Update; because of its varying start times it's impossible to set a series link to it. Sort it out Auntie.
• It is currently unknown what effect the virus will have on Strictly Come Dancing, although it did result in its Irish version, Dancing with the Stars, ending a week early.
• Georgie, the winner of Got What It Takes?, will be unable to perform on the main stage of this year's Radio 1 Big Weekend as the event in Dundee has been cancelled.