Telly Addicts is the name of a BBC1

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 hosted by Noel Edmonds

Noel Edmonds

Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...

, broadcast from 3 September 1985 until 29 July 1998 and produced at the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios

Pebble Mill Studios

The BBC 's Pebble Mill Studios were located in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham, England. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre...

. All questions were based on television programmes past and present, and generally took the form of a short clip being shown followed by a series of questions either specifically about the clip or more generally about the programme from which it had been taken. Two teams sat opposite each other on sofas. The final series in 1998 had three teams of two players.

1985–1986

The original format had two teams of four people with a winner-stays-on format. The challengers had to try to beat the champions to win and return as the champions in the next show, whilst the champions were simply playing to retain their title.

1987–1996

The format changed to a tournament

Tournament

A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...

 format. It involved 16 teams in eight qualifying heats. The eight winning teams of the qualifying heats would go on into the Quarter-Finals; the four winning teams of the Quarter-Finals would go into the Semi-Finals; the two winning teams of the Semi-Finals would proceed to the Grand Final, and the winning team of the Grand Final became the champions.

1997–1998

There was no series in 1997. The show returned in 1998 with a massive revamp with new rounds and rules. Instead of two teams, there were now three teams of two players and the tournament format was dropped. These changes were first exhibited in special Christmas edition in 1997 before a full series commenced the following year.

Rounds in the 1998 version

• TV Clip: The only round to be retained in its original format for the new series. Each team was given a classic TV clip and had to answer 3 questions related to the clip with 1 point for each correct answer.
• 10 Things Associated With...: Someone who worked on a classic TV show (e.g. a writer or actor), was asked what would be the 10 best things that summed up the programme. Each team had 60 seconds to guess as many as they could, scoring a point for each.
• In The Box: A mystery celebrity is concealed inside a multi-coloured box and answering general knowledge TV questions correctly allowed for a small panel to be opened. Each question was worth 1 point and 3 points for managing to correctly guess the mystery celebrity. If a team got the celebrity guess wrong, they are frozen out for the rest of the round. Following the reveal, the celebrity guest would ask a bonus question in return for a small prize, such as a board game. After this round, the team with the least points was eliminated.
• The Pyramid: One member from each of the two remaining teams had to stand in a small pyramid and answer question on a particular subject on TV. 1 point for each correct answer.
• World TV: Teams were shown a small film documenting the kind of TV shown in a foreign country (e.g. Spain, New Zealand) and then took in turns answering questions on what they saw. 1 point for a correct answer but incorrect answers saw the question passed onto the opposition.
• Raiders Of The Lost Archive: Taking in turns, the teams selected a category from a grid of nine and were asked a question from it, either worth 1, 3 or 5 points. The lowest scoring team after this game was eliminated.
• Stairway Of The Stars: The last remaining team were given a series of clues related to a celebrity, by moving onto their name space on the stairway, if they were right, the questions continued but if it was wrong, they move down a level. The team had 60 seconds to get to the top, if they did, they won a holiday, usually to the location shown in the World TV round but if they failed, they just won a portable TV.

This new style show received praise from some viewers but many others, especially media critics, believed it was drastic mistake making all of those changes. The programme was axed after the 1998 series, due to low ratings.

Spin offs

The Telly Addicts format was re-used in 2002 for the UK subscription TV channel Challenge in the form of quiz show Soap Addicts, hosted by Malandra Burrows

Malandra Burrows

Malandra Elizabeth Burrows is an English actress and singer.-Early life:Burrows' first name, Malandra, is a portmanteau of her parents' names, Malcolm and Sandra. Her mother encouraged her at an early age to begin dancing; she initially trained under Billy Pearce's mother Jean...

 and Richard Arnold

Richard Arnold (TV presenter)

Richard Arnold is a British television presenter. He is currently employed by Seven Network.-Early life:Arnold was born in a house in Hampshire, grew up in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, and attended University of Edinburgh, gaining a MA in English Language and Literature. He then studied journalism at...

. However, the programme was not recommisioned after its 2003 series.

Three Interactive DVDs based on the Telly Addicts show have been produced so far, featuring original presenter Noel Edmonds. The first was released in Autumn 2005http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/716969/Telly-Addicts/Product.html, the second in Autumn 2006http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/1112938/Telly-Addicts-2/Product.html and the third in Autumn 2007.http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3434611/Telly-Addicts-TV-Heaven/Product.html

A Telly Addicts Video Game for Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

, Nintendo Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

, PSP

PlayStation Portable

The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

 and PS2 was published by Ubisoft

Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....

 on November 9, 2007.

In 2009, the TV trivia show As Seen on TV

As Seen on TV (TV series)

As Seen on TV is a BBC television panel game show based around TV trivia. It is produced by Shine TV by arrangement with Unique Broadcasting; the latter is the company owned by Noel Edmonds, who presented the similarly themed show Telly Addicts....

was launched, hosted by Steve Jones. Edmonds' company Unique Broadcasting was acknowledged on the credits.

Original series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	3 September 1985	17 December 1985	16
2	9 September 1986	9 December 1986	14
3	12 September 1987	19 December 1987	15
4	30 August 1988	6 December 1988	15
5	4 September 1989	11 December 1989	15
6	3 September 1990	10 December 1990	15
7	2 September 1991	9 December 1991	15
8	8 September 1992	15 December 1992	15
9	6 September 1993	13 December 1993	15
10	12 September 1994	19 December 1994	15
11	4 September 1995	11 December 1995	15
12	2 September 1996	16 December 1996	15
13	2 March 1998	29 July 1998	16

Champion of Champions series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	9 January 1995	27 February 1995	8

Specials

Date	Entitle
24 December 1985	Christmas Special
6 September 1986	Celebrity Special
16 December 1986	Series 1 & 2 Champions Special
23 December 1986	Christmas Special
26 December 1987	Series 2 & 3 Champions Special
29 December 1987	Christmas Special
13 December 1988	Series 3 & 4 Champions Special
23 December 1988	Christmas Special
18 December 1989	Series 5 Champions & Celebrities Special
24 December 1989	Christmas Special
17 December 1990	Series 6 Champions & Celebrities Special
29 December 1990	Christmas Special
16 December 1991	Series 7 Champions & Celebrities Special
26 December 1991	Christmas Special
22 December 1992	Fast Forward Special
28 December 1992	Christmas Special
20 December 1993	Series 9 Champions & Celebrities Special
29 December 1993	Christmas Special
5 September 1994	10 Years of Telly Addicts Special
28 December 1994	Christmas Special
18 December 1995	Series 11 Champions & Celebrities Special
28 December 1995	Christmas Special
4 November 1996	Celebrity Special
23 December 1996	Christmas Special
29 December 1997	Christmas Special