Over the winter, the TV takes an even more vaunted place in our daily lives. Offering easy entertainment in a cosy room, afternoon and evening showings always amass millions of viewers – even in the splintered landscape that we find ourselves in. Chief among these are almost always the game shows.
Whether it’s a test of skill, physicality, knowledge, or both, it’s tough to not stay tuned even if you do jump in at the halfway mark. Of course, game shows aren’t among the top ratings for the vaunted Christmas Day slot, but they certainly keep us ticking over until the big day.
There are a lot of them on the centerpiece channels, and you can even find some other ways to play along beyond shouting answers and predicting winners from your living room!
Newcomers hit the ground running
It was a particularly cold November, but at least we got three new game shows or reality game shows to sink into for the winter. Easily the most accessible of these, and the one with the most pulling power for game show fans, was the return of Deal or No Deal.
Now on ITV and STV with Stephen Mulhern taking over as host, its 20 November return at 4 pm looks to re-establish the once record-breaking series as a staple of afternoon TV. While it’s tough to hear the entry theme without Noel Edmonds ready to welcome the contestants, the format is still incredibly engaging and great fun.
Over on Prime Video, Amazon looks to invade the game show space, utilizing one of their more recent IP acquisitions to try to appeal to the British public. In 007: Road to a Million, which arrived at the start of November, Brian Cox has been brought in to play as the villain while contestants attempt to beat trivia questions and spy-like challenges to try to win £1 million.
On another streaming platform, this time Netflix, a smash-hit drama based on a deadly game show-like set of trials has become its own real-life game show. With around £3.7 million on the line, 456 people enter Squid Game: The Challenge to attempt to outlast the rest.
Playing along beyond the TV
Just looking at the slate from the BBC and ITV alone, you’ve got a huge stack of game shows, which include House of Games, The Weakest Link, University Challenge, Mastermind, Pointless, Picture Slam, Epic Gameshow, Limitless, Saturday Night Takeaway, Beat the Chasers, and so many more. Next year, Graham Norton will be bringing Wheel of Fortune back to the UK!
Still, whenever we watch from home, we often want to be in that studio testing our minds and trying to win the big prize. This is why so many online sites now offer game shows and games with a game show twist. You can even find table games of roulette online that now have a hefty game show twist. In PowerUP Roulette, you play the classic game live with the hopes of hitting the bonus round. Here, there’s up to 8,000x on the line!
While a live online game show that you can play anytime is quite the step forward in gaming technology, there’s another on the way that might even be more impressive. Coming soon, Greg Davies can be right there in front of you in the VR game show for Taskmaster. Coming to the Meta Quest, you’ll be able to play from right there in the virtual studio.
We’ve got a whole host of great game shows to enjoy on TV over the next few months, and if the TV slots don’t align well enough for you, there are always digital options.
