The 11 O'Clock Show

Production

The 11 O'Clock Show came about after Kevin Lygo was appointed Head of Entertainment at Channel 4, with Chief Executive Michael Jackson wanting a nightly sketch show focused on current events. Rather than opening the project to competitive bids, the network handed it directly to Peter Finchem's Talkback Productions, the company behind Brass Eye. Harry Thompson, who had produced The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 and helped turn it into Have I Got News For You, took on the role of producer. He had also launched Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, and They Think It's All Over. During early planning, Graham Norton was asked to host but turned it down because he did not like news programming.

When the show premiered, Brendan Burns and Fred MacAulay served as hosts, with Iain Lee acting as the roving reporter. Rich Hall filed a report from outside the White House, Iain Lee made a prank call to the BBC's election broadcast from the previous night featuring Mo Mowlam, Daisy Donovan appeared for the first time as Pandora Box-Grainger at a Steve Coogan premiere, and Ali G made his debut. The show aired three nights a week. The first series lasted two weeks, the second ran for six weeks, and the third was commissioned for three months. Most episodes were written, recorded, and broadcast on the same day, though Ali G's segments were pre-recorded separately from the main production. By the third series, the internal goal was to make the show feel like a newspaper on television, but with jokes.

James Bobin worked as both a director and writer, helping to develop the characters Ali G, Borat, and Brüno. According to Iain Lee, Ali G was what kept the show alive; without him, the program would have died. Mackenzie Crook joined during the second series. For the third series, Ricky Gervais appeared in 54 episodes, taking over from Sacha Baron Cohen, who had been in 45 episodes. Writers across the five-series run included Ben Caudell, Peter Holmes, Shaun Pye, Charlie Skelton, Robin Ince, and Charlie Brooker. Iain Lee later said the show was given a specific instruction to shock and offend, which was considered more important than being funny. He noted that while the Ali G material was hilarious and Ricky Gervais's contributions were divisive but also hilarious, much of the rest was not very funny. Sarah Alexander joined the cast in the fifth series.