Are there too many comedy panel shows?

Next week, if you really wanted to, you could watch three hours and ten minutes worth of new editions of comedy panel shows. And, on the terrestrial channels alone, you could watch a further three hours and ten minutes of uncut, XL, old, repeated episodes. That’s not to mention the 9 million hours to be found on Dave (and Dave ja vu) when Top Gear’s not on. But are there too many panel shows, or are they all offering something different enough to warrant their continued existence? To help solve this problem, let’s take a look at some of the panel shows filling the schedules this week.

Things kick off tonight with the continuation of the 25th series (!) of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Despite not pulling off the Have I Got News for You guest host format, and the BBC shepherding it around the schedules in the hope that viewers won’t spot it, it’s a show that simply refuses to go away. I once asked a friend if he’d watched Buzzcocks the previous night, and he said: “Oh I don’t watch that cos I don’t like the music they have on it.” I was completely nonplussed by this; Buzzcocks is as much a show about music as Come Dine with Me is a show about 17th Century politics. OK, so all of the rounds are music-related, but these rounds are really in the background of the guests making quips and snide remarks about topical things.

So how does that make it different from Thursday night’s comedy panel show staple, Mock the Week? (I should probably say one of Thursday night’s comedy panel show staples; after all, Question Time’s on later.) MTW claims to be a show that takes a poke at things in the news and, admittedly, it does… but only for half the show. The rest is made up of people making quips and snide remarks about topical things.

One of the very few panel shows to actually have a clear focus is Would I Lie to You? and, can it be a coincidence that this is also the best of the lot? The central concept is simple, yet strong, and it leads to discoveries of hilarious, memorable facts that Wikipedia couldn’t hope to tell you. It also seems less scripted than most of its counterparts; I was put off MTW for years because of the sheer autocue nature of everything that everyone said, but I’ve learnt to just accept it. It does jar when the guests start ticking off their scripts, though…

Also this week, there are new editions of Ask Rhod Gilbert, QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and HIGNFY. While some of them prove that it is possible for a panel show to stand out from the crowd, for the most part, it is difficult to distinguish one from the next, especially seen as they generally feature the same people making quips and snide remarks about topical things.

The situation has become so extreme that there are now fewer soaps on our screens than there are panel shows. While it’s always nice to have a choice, this is perhaps stretching things a little too far, and it’s surely impossible to keep up with all the new episodes. There’s no denying the popularity of the genre (and it is a genre – they’ve even got their own National Television Award), but how many of their viewers watch them religiously, and how many merely tune in because there’s nothing else on? And, more worryingly, how many original, expensive dramas are being blocked because schedules are being filled with cheap, reliable panel shows?

It would seem that panel shows have reached saturation point. But what do you think: would you welcome another? Or are there already too many? Let us know in the comments!

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