Richard Osman's House of Games

Richard Osman's House of Games is a British quiz show hosted by Richard Osman and produced by Banijay UK Productions subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC. The show is played on a weekly basis, with four celebrities playing on five consecutive days to win daily prizes, and the weekly prize of being crowned as "House of Games" champion. Points are accrued depending on where each celebrity finishes on each day and the points are doubled on Friday's show.[2]

Richard Osman's House of Games
Also known asHouse of Games
GenreQuiz show
Directed by
  • Ollie Bartlett
  • John Smith
Presented byRichard Osman
Theme music composerMarc Sylvan
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series8
No. of episodes605
Production
Executive producers
  • Alexandra McLeod
  • Tamara Gilder
  • Richard Hague
  • Stephen Lovelock
ProducerStuart Harrison
Production locations dock10 studios (2024–present)
Camera setupMultiple-camera setup
Running time30 minutes
Production companyRemarkable Entertainment
Original release
Network
  • BBC Two (Richard Osman's House of Games)
  • BBC One (Richard Osman's House of Games Night)
Release4 September 2017 (2017-09-04) –
present
Related
Richard Osman's House of Games Night

Format

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Osman sits on a chair to the left of the screen, while the four celebrities sit on adjoining chairs. Osman hits a button on his table, activating a round generator, which is displayed on a big screen. He then explains what the round is about and in what format it will take place. For instance, whether it is a buzzer round, a pairs round or one where the players require use of their tablet computers. Five rounds are played each day, with the second round being played in pairs, and the final round always being "Answer Smash". The first round is quick general knowledge questions with a comic twist, such as rhyming words. The fourth round is typically "slow", where the question takes several minutes to be answered, and only one contestant receives a single point each time. In most games, a point is awarded for each correct answer, but in "Answer Smash", points are also deducted for incorrect answers.

At the end of each day, the scores are announced and the winner wins a daily prize, which is usually a normal everyday object of some description with the "House of Games" logo imprinted on it (the logo being a turquoise-blue background with a depiction of Osman's hair, eyebrows and glasses). The points are then converted to four points for the winner, three for second place, two for third place and one for fourth place onto the weekly leader board with the points doubling to 8, 6, 4 and 2 for Friday's "Double Points Friday" edition. The weekly winner receives the "House of Games" trophy (a silver cup with the Osman depiction on it) from Osman. If there are 2 players tied for first place at the end of the week, both players are declared joint-winners and win a trophy each. In more recent episodes, a tie for first place is resolved by a tie-break question; the first to buzz-in wins if they answer correctly or their opponent wins if they answer incorrectly.

Starting with Series 3, special "House of Champions" episodes aired featuring players who had previously won a daily or weekly edition of the show coming back for another week to fight for the Gold Champions Trophy. There were also daily prizes, which were similar to the prizes on the regular version of the show, however, they were mainly gold, rather than the turquoise-blue colour. In Series 6 and 7, there were also special "Redemption" weeks with four previous losing contestants who had never won a day prize.

A week's worth of shows is recorded on a single day, so the celebrities are booked for only one day,[3] changing outfits between shows.

Games

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Buzzer games

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  • Rhyme Time
  • Broken Karaoke
  • What's in a Name? (changed to It's All in the Name in series 2)
  • This Round Is in Code
  • A-Z
  • Z-A
  • Games House Of
  • The Elephant in the Room
  • Roonerspisms
  • The Backwards Round
  • Opposites Attract
  • King of the Jumble
  • Two Clues in One
  • A Blast from the Past Tense
  • Internet History
  • Pop Art
  • Can You Feel It?
  • The Too Complicated Round
  • Well Done If You Said That at Home
  • Sorry, Wrong Number
  • There Once Was a Quiz Host Called Richard...
  • Vowel Movement
  • Singonyms
  • Richard's Junk
  • Sounds Like...
  • Only Fools and Zebras
  • Double Trouble
  • Somewhere Only We Don't
  • It Will All Become Clear
  • Wetter Slap
  • Flamingo, Pot Plant, Middlemarch
  • Name Tag
  • There's a Cat on My Keyboard
  • Is It Spaniel Craig?

Individual games

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  • Correction Centre
  • Mouse of Games
  • The Answer's in the Question
  • And the Answer Isn't
  • Cine-Nyms
  • Highbrow Lowbrow
  • The Pen-Ultimate Round
  • Question Writers' Day Off
  • House of Gamers
  • Hose of Games
  • Hey, Alexander!
  • Look Who's Back
  • Hidden in Plain Sight
  • Klaus of Games
  • Previously on House of Games

Pairs games

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  • Distinctly Average
  • Build Your Own Question
  • Dim Sums
  • Chron-Illogical
  • You Complete Me
  • All in the Details
  • Venn Will I Be Famous?
  • You Spell Terrible
  • Totes Emoji
  • The Two Wrongies
  • I Complete You
  • Reichard Ösmans Haus Der Spiele (changed to Reichard Ösmanns Haus Der Spiele in Series 4)
  • The Z-List
  • Don't State the Obvious
  • Password123
  • Stick It
  • My Perfect Match
  • Mime Time
  • Great Minds Link Alike
  • Richard Osman's Blank of Blanks
  • Why Don't You Answer My Letters?
  • Partners in Time

Random games

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  • Is It Me?
  • The Nice Round
  • But What's the Question?
  • Lucky Dip
  • Win When They're Singing
  • The (Not Quite So) Nice Round
  • Who Goes First?
  • There's No 'I' in Osman
  • I Am Not a Robot
  • Tom, Vic and Abby
  • Bits of Hits

Tablet games

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  • Put Your Finger on It
  • Where Is Kazakhstan?
  • The Rich List
  • Size Matters
  • I'm Terrible at Dating
  • Outplay Osman
  • Race the Dame

Final round

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Answer Smash is played in the final round (5)

Contestants

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Weekly winners in bold.

Series 1

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Series 2

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Series 3

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Series 4

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Series 5

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Series 6

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Series 7

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Series 8

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House of Champions

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Series 3
Series 5
Series 6
Series 7

Redemption Week

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Series 6
Series 7

Festive

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Festive Series 1

Festive Series 2

Transmissions

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Series Start date End date Episodes
1 4 September 2017[4] 22 September 2017[5] 15[5]
2 28 May 2018[6] 14 December 2018[7] 50[7]
3 7 October 2019[8] 13 March 2020[9] 100[9]
4 12 October 2020[10] 12 March 2021[11] 100[11]
5 16 August 2021[12] 29 April 2022[13] 140[13]
6 5 September 2022[14] 3 February 2023[15] 100[15]
7 25 September 2023[16] 1 March 2024 100
8 23 September 2024 TBA 100

Spin-offs

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Richard Osman's House of Games Night

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On 20 November 2020, Osman launched a five-episode spin-off called Richard Osman's House of Games Night, broadcast weekly in primetime on BBC One.[17] A one-episode Christmas Special aired on 28 December 2020.[18] A second series, consisting of six episodes, began on 1 October 2021.[19]

The series follows the exact same format as the main show, but with the addition of rounds not seen in the original. There are no double points in the final episode. Series 2 features a house band led by David O'Doherty. In 2022, House of Games Night was cancelled after two series.

New games

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  • Don't Cry for Me Guatemala
  • Don't Trust the Experts
  • Clash in the Attic
  • Sounding Off
  • This Music Round's Better with You
  • Is There a Doctor in the House of Games?
  • I've Got the Historical Blues
  • Arty-Facts
  • It's Not Me, It's You
  • Get Your Head in the Game
  • Here's One You Asked Yourself Earlier
  • Famous Last Words
  • Get Your Junk Out
  • Weigh Up Your Options
  • Coming Up Next...

Transmissions

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Series Start date End date Episodes
1 20 November 2020 18 December 2020[20] 5[17]
Christmas Special 28 December 2020 1[18]
2 1 October 2021 5 November 2021[21] 6[19]

Contestants

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Merchandise

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On 17 October 2019, Osman and Alan Connor published Richard Osman's House of Games: 101 new & classic games from the hit BBC series, a quizbook based on the programme.[22]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b This person finished on a negative score during one episode this week.
  2. ^ a b This week had all five episodes won by the same person.
  3. ^ The highest (Thursday) and second highest (Friday) single episode score.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Curtis, Chris; Farber, Alex (17 July 2020). "Entertainment shows wrestle with production restart". Broadcast.
  2. ^ "Richard Osman on Twitter – 500th Episode". Twitter. 23 July 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  3. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games". Kinetic Pixel. September 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  4. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 1, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 1, Episode 15". BBC Online. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 2, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 2, Episode 50". BBC Online. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  8. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 3, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 3, Episode 100". BBC Online. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 4, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  11. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 4, Episode 100". BBC Online. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  12. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 5, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  13. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 5, Episode 140". BBC Online. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  14. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 6, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  15. ^ a b "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 6, Episode 100". BBC Online. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  16. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games – Series 7, Episode 1". BBC Online. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  17. ^ a b "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Episode 1".
  18. ^ a b "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Christmas Special".
  19. ^ a b "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 2, Episode 1".
  20. ^ "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Episode 5".
  21. ^ "BBC One – Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 2, Episode 6".
  22. ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
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