Hot Picks: Question Team

Produced by Interstellar, Question Team rips up the rulebook of comedy quiz shows with a playful format that asks the contestants to set the all-important questions.

Host Richard Ayoade’s trademark nonchalant humour is married with a whimsical line-up of guest comedians, with the usual quiz preparation outsourced to the panellists. 

This is where the format’s originality shines, as each guest showcases their quirks and interests in a unique round of questions for the other contestants, where the only stipulation is that each question requires a proper answer.

The result is a show that can get “as wacky as you want it to” – from Bob Mortimer’s jaunty DIY tool round to Thanyia Moore asking questions on pop music during a Sky dive.

The flexibility is what drew in Kelly Wright, senior vice-president of distribution and new business at distributor Keshet International. “It has great scalability for a gameshow,” she says.

The series has already secured two pre-sales, with the UK tape picked up by TVNZ in New Zealand and Australia’s SBS. “Both are fantastic homes,” Wright says, touting the Trans-Tasman regions as being a “welcoming place for UK comedy panels”.

“They love the humour, and they know the celebrities. It really fits right into their programming schedules and their audience needs,” she says.

The strong celebrity culture in the US and Canada make them “natural targets” according to Wright, who is also eyeing Scandinavia as a potential market for both finished tape and format sales, alongside other European markets, such as Germany.

The format currently sits on UKTV’s Dave channel in the UK, the original home of Avalon’s Taskmaster, which also revelled in allowing its comedy contestants free rein over the format.

Producer Interstellar, the newly rebranded unscripted division of Keshet Productions, which falls under accelerator Greenbird, delivered an eight-episode debut run of Question Team in autumn 2021.

Following months of lockdownstyle Zoom quizzes, Question Team takes the ‘bring your own round’ quiz format to the small screen.

“Everyone’s trying to make a buzzy show while adhering to Covid regulations and is restricted in terms of the audience and studio setting. Question Team really ticks off a lot of boxes,” says Wright.

With the flexibility to choose from a range of guests, “you can create a unique dialogue and conversation around firestarter issues, whether these are trends or subjects that you as a channel want to focus on,” Wright explains. “Or you can simply let the celebrity quirkiness really shine.”