Have I Got News for You (American game show)
American panel show based on the British original.
Have I Got News for You, an American panel show adapted from a British format, debuted on CNN in September 2024 during the U.S. election season. Teams led by Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black compete on weekly news trivia. Unlike its British counterpart, Roy Wood Jr. serves as permanent host. The show earned mixed reviews but boosted CNN’s ratings, earning a second season that started in February 2025. Episodes stream on CNN’s app and HBO Max.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Comedy panel game; Political satire
- Runtime
- 44 minutes
- Creator
- Jimmy Mulville
- Presenter
- Roy Wood Jr.
- Starring
- Amber Ruffin; Michael Ian Black
- Theme music
- original BBC music by Big George, theme reinterpreted by Doug Stoley
- Channel
- CNN
- Location
- CBS Broadcast Center
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The rounds resemble those of the British version, including "Missing Words" and "Odd One Out". Other regular rounds are "What's the Story?", where Wood shows clips of a major news story and teams identify it; "Offend-O-Meter", where teams guess a person, their action, and whom they offended; "Lie-Curious", where teams pick the true statement from three; "Meet in the Middle", where panellists find a common characteristic; "Caption Contest", where teams caption pictures; "Which is Higher?", where teams determine the more expensive item; and "Who's That Baby?", where teams identify a famous person from a baby photo and three clues.
Background
The satirical panel show Have I Got News for You first aired in the UK in 1990, with Angus Deayton as host and Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as permanent captains. A BBC department that included Mark Thompson commissioned it, and Hat Trick Productions, run by Jimmy Mulville, makes the show. After Thompson became director of television, the program moved from BBC Two to BBC One in 2000. Each episode runs half an hour. Known for its sharp tone, the show once substituted inanimate objects for two guests who cancelled, and faced a lawsuit for calling a sitting MP a "conniving little shit." Deayton resigned in 2002 following allegations of cocaine use and involvement with prostitutes; the series now uses rotating guest hosts.
History
Bravo expressed interest in an American version in 2005. Sam Seder piloted versions for NBC in 2009 and for TBS in 2012, with Michael Ian Black and Greg Giraldo as captains for NBC, and Black and Sherrod Small for TBS. Mulville said these networks declined because they wanted a more pop-culture and celebrity-based show, and one US talent agent called it "too British". In early 2024, Mulville approached Thompson, who had become director general of CNN the previous autumn. Thompson announced the series at the Warner Bros. Discovery TV Upfronts on May 15, 2024, promising "a smart, silly, opinionated, and edgy take on the news of the week". The show was initially commissioned for ten episodes. In August 2024, Roy Wood Jr., a former Daily Show correspondent involved in a prior pilot, was announced as host. Later that month, Michael Ian Black was named team captain opposite Amber Ruffin, who had hosted The Amber Ruffin Show and written for Late Night with Seth Meyers; she auditioned against other late-night presenters, contributors, and podcasters. The trio filmed a test episode before the series. Episodes were recorded on Fridays and broadcast on Saturdays, lasting an hour. The series used a bass-heavy remix of the original theme and followed next-day repeats of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, which CNN began carrying in March 2024.
Reception
The show's timing, before the 2024 US elections and during a period of potential bias accusations, led University of Connecticut professor David D'Alessio to ask if "someone at CNN" had "lost their mind". Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph questioned how Thompson was talked into importing the format and found the program less barbed than the original, though he called it "cheerfully competent" and "nowhere near the embarrassment it might have been". Joel Keller of Decider.com praised the comedy of Wood, Ruffin, and Black but thought the show too long. Dylan Fugel of Paste felt it lacked the original's "meanness" and sat "uncomfortably between genres", also noting that Welch made the funniest joke and that the show was excessively pacey due to contestants, especially Black, answering correctly too often. The opening episode drew 737,000 viewers, more than most CNN programs in that slot but slightly less than Real Time. It was beaten by One Nation with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News and the first half of MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 on NBC.
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