Eggheads

Host

Dermot Murnaghan (2003-14)

Jeremy Vine (in rotation with Murnaghan 2008-15, main host 2015-)

Co-hosts

Eggheads:
Kevin Ashman (2003-)
Christopher Hughes (2003-20, 2022-)
Judith Keppel (2003-)
Daphne Fowler (2003-14)
CJ de Mooi (2003-12, 2014-16)
Barry Simmons (2008-)
Pat Gibson (2010-)
Dave Rainford (2012-18)
Lisa Thiel (2014-)
Steve Cooke (2016-)
Beth Webster (2016-)
Olav Bjortomt (2021-)

Broadcast

12 Yard for BBC One, 10 November 2003 to 28 October 2004 (60 episodes in 2 series)

12 Yard for BBC Two, 23 May 2005 to 15 June 2020 (1810 episodes in 19 series)

as Celebrity Eggheads: 12 Yard for BBC Two, 15 December 2008 to 31 August 2018 (92 episodes in 8 series)

12 Yard for Channel 5, 4 October 2021 to present

Synopsis

Typical 12-Yard fare, five amateur quizzers take on five quiz professionals in an occasionally big-money quiz.

Original host, Dermot Murnaghan

In the first four rounds the challengers are given a category and must decide which one of them will take it and which of the Eggheads they want to take on. Each Egghead normally has some kind of weakness, so boning up by watching past episodes is a must.

"...That's the way we all became The Brady Bunch."
Top: Chris, CJ; Middle: Barry, Pat, Judith; Bottom: Daphne, Kevin.

Because there is to be no conferring, the selected players are moved to a separate "question room" and are shown on a large screen behind the rest of the team. Each person is given three multiple-choice questions and whoever gets the most correct wins the duel. In the case of a tie, sudden death non-choice questions are asked until there is a winner. Losing the duel means not being involved in the all-important final round.

The options appear on screen. This question asked which band recorded the album "Through the Barricades".

The prizemoney increases £1,000 every day the Eggheads aren't beaten in the final round. All losing duelists are banished to the "question room" and appear on the large screen behind the rest of the players. The remains of each team are now asked three multiple-choice questions as before but now they can confer with anyone left in the game. (Occasional celebrity series of 45-minute editions had five questions per team in this final round, which helps to stretch out the show, but does add to the ever-increasing roster of shows which have this exact format for the final.) Again, ties are broken by non-multiple choice sudden death questions. If the challengers win then they win the Jackpot. If the Eggheads win then their reputation stays intact.

The progress of this round is summarised over a wide shot of the studio.

The production team have come under fire from many in the quizzing community over the vetting of contestants. Anyone who sounds as though they might be a 'professional quizzer' seems to be vetted in favour of the average pub team who doesn't try out for many television programmes. Whilst this does make a slight mockery of the "can nobody beat these Eggheads" idea, it does turn the show into an intellectual version of Gladiators which for some is where its strength lies.

Key moments

The sour admonishment from Vine whenever an Egghead confidently gives a wrong answer.

Catchphrase

Dermot to the Eggheads: "You're playing for something money can't buy - the Eggheads' reputation."

"Can nobody beat these Eggheads?"

Inventor

12 Yard format

Theme music

David Hubbard and Rumble Music

Trivia

The record win is £75,000, won by a team of five Oxford Brookes University students called "Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow".

Jade Goody once appeared with a team from her beauty salon, and through a series of lucky guesses managed to singlehandedly take the Eggheads to sudden death in the final round. The Mash Report presenter Rachel Parris also appeared on the show pre-fame; she lost her round but the team won.

The first two series went out at 12.30 on BBC1, a slot previously occupied by Wipeout and later taken over by Bargain Hunt. From October 2005, Eggheads took up residence at 6pm on BBC2; popular cartoon The Simpsons had filled that slot for a number of years, but Channel 4 bought the rights from November 2004, and BBC2 had tried many shows there (games included Traitor, an edit of Spy, Dick and Dom's Ask the Family) without much success.

Eggheads has remained at 6pm, with occasional shifts to 6.30 for the Richard Osman shows Two Tribes and House of Games. Are You an Egghead aired at 4.30, Make Me an Egghead went out at 6.45 (after Debatable). There's never been any other attempt to push Eggheads deep into primetime, although it did shift earlier in the day during bank holidays (at 5.15, as the news was shorter and Pointless aired at 5.45). Occasional repeat runs from autumn 2018 have aired at 4:45pm and earlier, when the 6pm slot is otherwise occupied, while a run of repeats of Celebrity Eggheads in August 2020 was repeated at 2.15pm on BBC1, its first broadcast on that channel for over fifteen years. Channel 5 aired its episodes at 6.30, presumably because it would have stood no chance against House of Games - although episodes 40 and 41 of its second series went out at 5:30pm. (Well we call them episodes 40 and 41. They insist that the five celebrity episodes that preceded the series constitute episodes 1 to 5; we disagree.)

In later series, the Eggheads would pose a question for the audience at home to work on, which they would answer at the end of the show. An odd decision to introduce, since regular viewers would be used to at least 20 questions in a half-hour slot. When it went over to Channel 5, they posed it before the break, which makes far more sense.

After a time of uncertainty during which the BBC insisted the show was merely being "rested", Jeremy Vine announced on the 12 March 2021 edition of his eponymous Channel 5 show that the series would be moving to the station with a 40 episode series later in the year. Christopher Hughes missed that series.

When it was on the BBC, celebrity editions were kept in separate series; Channel 5's second series led with a week of specials.