Impact of COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 inevitably had an impact on the game show world. Series were curtailed, shows were delayed or axed, formats changed. This is a dynamic list; if you think we've missed anything, feel free to use the feedback form below.

Shows

BBC1

The Apprentice will not air this year, as filming has been postponed, and the makers would not have enough time to produce the series in time. It is currently unknown whether it will be transmitted at the start of 2021 or whether it will skip a year.
By far the biggest felling is Eurovision; neither its song contest nor its young musicians competition will take place this May. While the EBU considered many options – a series behind closed doors, remote videos from each broadcaster's studio – none of them would deliver the experience. The 41 songs that had been selected for the contest will be featured in a non-competitive programme, "Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light", which will air in the same time slot.
Have I Got News for You was produced, but within its participants' homes, described by its executive producer Richard Wilson as an 'elaborate video conference'. However, the absence of an audience did really hurt, as it meant the show was missing a necessary layer of quality control.
Filming of Little Mix's The Search, basically a BBC version of The X Factor: The Band which aimed to find a supporting slot on their summer tour, is off, at least for the time being, as Little Mix's summer tour will not be going ahead.
With BBC1's afternoons given over to news coverage, Pointless temporarily moved to BBC2, retaining its regular 5:15 pm slot with only the repeat on the day of the announcement of the pandemic pushed back to 5:45 pm. From 30 March 2020, and for the first time since 2011, new episodes of Pointless premiered on BBC2. Only three weeks of new editions appeared before going back to repeats; there were plenty of unaired shows on the shelf but presumably it was felt a waste to debut them on the second channel, especially with those wishing to record them stymied by the fact that episodes were still officially scheduled on BBC1 and moved on an ad-hoc basis each afternoon due to the varying start times of the Coronavirus Daily Update, making it impossible to set a series link.
Also due to the Daily Update, the revival of Ready Steady Cook was shuffled about the schedules. Episodes 1-8 and 10 went out at 4:30 pm, episode 9 (broadcast the day of the announcement of the pandemic) went out at 4:40 pm on BBC2, episodes 11, 13 and 14 aired at 3:45 pm, episode 19 aired at 3:30 pm and episodes 12, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 20 aired at 3 pm.
A three-part "best bits" series of Strictly Come Dancing was recorded from the homes of the presenters and judges. It is currently unknown what effect the virus will have on Strictly Come Dancing itself, although earlier in the year the RTÉ version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing with the Stars, ended a week early.

BBC2

An episode of Dragons' Den scheduled to air on 29 March was delayed for two weeks and edited to remove a pitch for a virus-killing air purification unit. The Radio Times preview for the episode put particular emphasis on how the dragons could not have known how big an issue this was about to become when they filmed the show last year, implying it did not receive an investment.
The second series of I'll Get This premiered in its extended version, rather than the familiar half-hour edition. The extra 15 minutes pushed Newsnight back to 10:45 pm, allowing it to move into the same studio as the main evening news over on BBC1.
For one recording session of QI, the capacity of the venue had been reduced as a result of government advice (remember when the advice was only to avoid mass gatherings?).
The production of a celebrity series of Race Across the World had to be postponed as a result of the outbreak; its second civilian series, which had already finished production, aired March and April.
One repeat of Richard Osman's House of Games broadcast the day of the announcement of the pandemic was put back to 6:30 pm, plus filming of new episodes was postponed. (You would think they would have taken the opportunity to air the new episodes of Eggheads they haven't got round to…)

ITV

Britain's Got Talent - ITV made the decision to go ahead with airing its auditions as planned, despite knowing they would almost certainly have not been able to finish the series as a result of the pandemic. It's not for us to tell ITV how to run their business but really... would it not have been better to wait and air the series in one block?
Clearly buoyed by the success of repeats of Vernon Kay's series on Challenge and Pick, and by the fact that millions of families are by law not doing anything, ITV decided to pilot a lockdown version of Family Fortunes. Perhaps the makers of The Button may wish to follow their example?
It has been suggested that I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! could film this year's series in the UK if international travel remains problematic, which poses an interesting question; why wasn't this done last year during the Australian bushfires, which happened hazardously close to the set?
Saturday Night Takeaway was in the middle of a series when the outbreak became an inconvenience. The first three episodes went out as usual, the fourth went out with a disclaimer that the intended finale in Florida had been cancelled due to travel restrictions to and from the self-proclaimed United States, the fifth episode aired without a studio audience and the last two were hour-long compilation episodes filmed from Ant and Dec's houses, separated from each other, with In for a Penny brought forward by two weeks. Still aired more footage than the previous series; its previous series lost an episode as a result of the rehabilitation of Ant McPartlin.
The Chase had a number of filming sessions for its celebrity editions postponed, but due to the erratic way new episodes air it is impossible to know whether or not this is actually going to make any difference.
The Voice UK was also mid-series when the pandemic was announced. They finished airing the battle rounds, as they had already started, but they could not film the live semi-final and final, which were replaced by two The Voice UK: Most Memorable Moments compilation episodes, presented by will.i.am.
Probably the biggest delay to filming any show as a result of the pandemic will come from Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, as the show requires an audience for one of its lifelines, and carrying out a pre-show survey would incur revealing the questions before broadcast, which would risk the questions getting in the hands of the contestants. Unless of course they carried them out live. The great Don't Ask Me Ask Britain revival starts here!

Channel 4

Channel 4, with no studio arm, is at the mercy of the advertising industry, which completely collapsed in the few weeks leading up to the lockdown; advertisers are reluctant to plough money into promoting goods you can't buy and services that are suspended. As a result, the publisher-broadcaster announced in March that it would be reducing its content budget by £150 million, about 25% of its entire expenditure. It looks like the entertainment channel E4 will be badly hit, and there may be fewer commissions on More4. This is likely to mean no more Celebrity Countdown.

Or any more new Countdown after 1 May for that matter. Already a couple of months behind schedule as a result of Rachel Riley's pregnancy, Countdown was forced to film ten episodes without an audience, and drop a further five episodes set to include Michael Whitehall as guardian of the dictionaries. One episode had to be replaced last minute due to a comment Nick Hewer made that could have been perceived as insensitive, another episode lost one of its teatime teasers and another had Hewer's introductory chat with Al Murray cut due to possible association with the pandemic. This last episode, incidentally, was one of ten episodes critically affected by an administrative error. From 4 May the show intends on repeating the 30th Birthday Championship - although as they have four unaired specials plus the one unaired Series 82 episode why don't they make a week of shelf-clearing?
The new celebrity series of The Circle is less likely to be affected, as its participants are in isolation anyway. We would question whether anyone would want to be reminded of quarantine after all this is over though.
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.
- Junior Bake Off is off for at least the year, as the UK's strict child labour laws give the show a very limited window in which to film.

Other

A Question of Sport moved to Radio 5, for a short series made from the contestants' homes, presented by Mark Chapman and broadcast live. We doubt a permanent takeover is on the cards: the TV job is surely Sue Barker's for as long as she wants to do it, and there would be complaints if Chapman took over, as it would then become yet another male-host-two-male-captains panel show which most panel shows are nowadays.
Breaking the News, a Radio Scotland show whose recordings are normally also filmed for broadcast on BBC Scotland, returned on radio as scheduled with the guests appearing from home, but no TV version. Like the other topical panel games on this list, it suffered for the lack of a studio audience.
Comedians Giving Lectures and Hypothetical have had their recordings postponed.
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. Regular panellist Tim Brooke-Taylor died in April after contracting the virus — we have an obituary for him here.
Although it was a questionable decision given the show's controversies, not least the death of among others Caroline Flack, ITV2 still planned to bring Love Island back this summer. It is now highly likely that the series will be postponed if not cancelled. It has been suggested that this show, like I'm a Celebrity, could also be filmed in the UK during August-September, using overflow cast from the winter series, though this really isn't a good idea, as this would incur running two series within six months, between which you may very well have The Circle and I'm a Celebrity; it just isn't worth watering down the brand.
The News Quiz returned with the host and panellists contributing from home.

Miscellaneous

Sometime Gag Tag team captain Eddie Large died in hospital with coronavirus on 2 April.
Georgie Mills, the winner of Got What It Takes?, will be unable to take her prize, which would have been to perform on the main stage of this year's Radio 1 Big Weekend as the event in Dundee has been cancelled. If her prize is carried forward into the 2021 event, it would likely mean there would be no series in 2021.

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