Weaver's Week 2025-10-26

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Just a quick one this week, while work continues on the UKGameshows website.

'We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.'

Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly are to stop hosting Strictly Come Dancing at the end of this year. Tess has been with the show since it began in 2004, Claudia Winkleman stepped into the shoes of Sir Bruce Forsyth ten years later. The hosts are warm, witty, and sparkling company; they also keep the programme going at exactly the right speed so that it never runs under or over its scheduled slot.

Whatever lies in Tess and Claudia's future, we wish them well. They will be a very hard act to follow.

Inevitably, speculation has begun on who will replace them. Graham Norton has recently signed a new contract with the BBC, which might be a hint. Alan Carr has proven very popular on The Traitors, but is he able to host live television without a safety net?

Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones might be worth a thought; both have performed on Strictly, both have masses of experience at hosting live television, both are regulars on daytime television so will be familiar to the relatively old Strictly audience, and both are lovely people whose joy shines through the sets.

Or we could go full Brummie, and reunite Joe Lycett and Alison Hammond from The Time it Takes.

Mock the Week to return Discovery Networks are going to change their Freeview channels. Discovery (or whatever they're calling themselves this week) will close HGTV, the channel previously known as UKTV Style; all the home improvement shows will move to Really, the channel previously known as UKTV Gardens.

Discovery's existing TLC channel will change its name, and go onto Freeview, and change its focus to exploit the Discovery company's old shows. And there will be a handful of new commissions, including a new and perhaps less topical series of Mock the Week. The original series ran from 2005 to 2022 on BBC2, with repeats still pulled out to fill gaps in the schedules. No word yet on whether the new Mock will feature host Dara Briain or regular Hugh Dennis.

The 3rd Degree finishes A surprise to hear that Radio 4 has decommissioned The 3rd Degree after 15 years. It's the students versus dons contest, matching youngsters against their own lecturers in rounds hosted by the chucklesome Hugh Dennis. Across the 90 episodes, we think there were about six wins for the students, and almost as many draws. It was much more lighthearted than the other Quizzy Monday shows, and always felt like the unloved runt of the litter.

The show will be remembered for inventing the idea of "Highbrow Lowbrow", subsequently developed by House of Games (3). And it will be remembered for beginning every episode with a grammatical solecism: " so as well as general knowledge questions there will be specialist ones as well".

Masterchef The Celebrities to air Yes, it's hosted by John Torode, who has since been fired from the BBC, and it's been sat on a BBC shelf for over a year. Perhaps if they didn't hold on to programmes for so long it would help avoid gaps in the schedule...

Can't be bothered ITV's Saturday night schedule is in a parlous state. It's reasonable to give up against Strictly Come Dancing, and concentrate their firepower against weaker opposition. But we were depressed to tune into Parents' Evening and find that they couldn't be bothered to employ an artist to illustrate a round; instead, they've used autocomplete bots. Might be cheaper on the bottom line, but it makes the show look shallow and incompetent. And, frankly, if they can't be bothered to make a professional show, we can't be bothered to watch it.

On the upside, very good episodes of The Wheel and The 1% Club last evening. Well worth a look.

"That was a bit of a disaster!" New pairs round on House of Games, where they play songs, ask one person to buzz in and say whether the song name includes "Good" or "Bad", then the other is to complete the tune. Nobody quite knew what they were doing, and there might be some quick re-working before they play it again.

The team this week were John Parrot (snooker champion), Sheli McCoy (Sabre from Gladiators), Katie Piper (model), and Kola Bokinni (Yola's brother, and most of the conversation revolved around his Champion of Champions sibling). John and Sheli were competitive, Kola laidback, and Katie knew what she knew. Took a few days for the group to find its stride, but it's clear the main prize was the friendships they made.

Back to Monday for the BBC2 evening quiz block. Matthew Pattenall found his Nirvana on Mastermind, winning with near-perfect knowledge of the early-90s grunge band fronted by Kurt Cobain. Matthew backed this up with enough on the general knowledge section, though there was a strong performance by Jane Kendrick to finish one off the leader.

A draw on Only Connect, as the Metrophiles and Showstoppers ground through questions. Legend of Zelda, words derived from author's names, folk who wear purple, stats about Henry VIII's wives, pieces played on woodwind instruments. Neither side was able to make the leap ahead, both made a small error on the walls, and the sides were just as good as each other in Missing Vowels. For boring reasons related to the BBC only commissioning 28 episodes a year, OC doesn't honour ties, and the Metrophiles progressed on the tie break.

Jars of kimchi brought Imperial good luck, enough points to come back as a high-scoring loser, and a standby mascot for their match against SOAS. Imperial won by 220-115, pulling ahead in the second half of the match after an even start. Buzz of the night to Eugenia Tong of Imperial, who just knew the first president of Botswana, and Imperial took their time to work out the first picture round on graphs showing sources of electricity over time. A 63% bonus rate, and 60% overall, are better than Imperial's first round effort.

Another set of boxes on Deal or No Deal (ITV, from Mon). E4 marks thirty years of Hollyoaks with a Celebrity Come Dine with Me special (from Mon). Jimmy Carr asks Am I the A**hole? (Comedy Central, Mon).

Hallowe'en is actually next Friday night (marked with special editions of Blue Peter and Top of the Pops), but that doesn't stop Strictly Come Dancing from marking The Day Before on All Saints Day (BBC1, Sat).

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