TV's biggest game show flops after David Tennant series ‘axed' – and the surprise hits

Scottish Sun

12-07-2025

Ford Kiernan loved the quiz show so much he tried to bring it back, saying, 'I approached STV but it turned out some Dutch company owned the rights.'
GAME ON TV's biggest game show flops after David Tennant series 'axed' – and the surprise hits
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DAVID Tennant's turn as a game show host has ended in disaster - after his flop The Genius Game got the same viewing figures as a BBC2 show about pangolins.
The reality game show hosted by the Scots actor is believed to have cost ITV £2.5million to make but drew an average audience of just 661,000 - matched by Pangolins: The World's Most Wanted Animal.
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Alexander Armstrong has proved to be a popular host of Pointless.
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Paddy McGuinnes saw the lost of three million viewers as Question of Sport host before the BBC cancelled it.
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Johnny Beattie was a cult hit as a game show host. Still Game's Ford Kiernan wanted to host a reboot.
However David, 54, isn't the only actor to have made the surprise career choice of hosting a telly quiz.
JOHNNY BEATTIE - HIT
THE legendary Scot started his showbiz career as a comic but was actually renowned for his serious acting roles - appearing alongside Liam Neeson in the 1990 film The Big Man.
Johnny, who passed away in 2020 aged 93, also played a baddie in Taggart and was popular as River City OAP Malcolm Hamilton which he played from 2002 until 2015.
But Johnny also hosted the STV gameshow Now You See It from 1981-1984, which Still Game creator Ford Kiernan loved so much he tried to bring, saying: 'I approached STV but it turned out some Dutch company owned the rights.'
NICHOLAS PARSONS - HIT
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The English public school boy cut his teeth on the tough Clyde shipyards before hosting Just a Minute of Radio 4 for 52 years.
THE English public school boy dreamed of being an entertainer but his family disapproved so to please them he trained as a mechanical engineer on the Clydeside shipyards.
Nicholas, who died in 2020 aged 96, stayed in Glasgow throughout World War II, where he won a radio talent contest before going on to appear in a series of 1950s films including Upstairs and Downstairs and Too Many Crooks.
But he became a national treasure as the genial host of ITV's Sale of the Century, and for over 50 years also chaired the comedy panel game show Just A Minute, in which contestants must avoid hesitation, repetition or deviation.
RICHARD O'BRIEN - FLOP
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Richard O'Brien's unconventional was a miss with viewers.
RICHARD O'Brien is probably best known for writing the musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show which in starred in as the sinister handyman Riff Raff.
But the 83 year old English actor made the leap to quiz show host in 1990 when he took the helm of Channel 4's The Crystal Maze.
His sarcastic put-downs and random harmonica playing saw the show reach a peak audience of seven million viewers in 1993, but two years later it was cancelled.
BRADLEY WALSH - HIT
BRADLEY is another who took the comedy route to acting where he went on to star as Danny Baldwin in Coronation Street for two years from 2004.
He also appeared as copper DS Ronnie Brooks in Law & Order: UK for five years from 2009 and was a regular in Doctor Who.
But Bradley, 65, has carved out a niche as one of the most in demand game show hosts starting with Wheel of Fortune in 1997 then Odd One In (2010–2011), Keep It in the Family (2014–2015), Cash Trapped (2016–2019), and Blankety Blank and The Chase which he still presents to this day.
PADDY MCGUINNESS - FLOP
FOUND fame starring in Peter Kay's Channel smash hit Phoenix Nights and then the spin-off series Max And Paddy's Road to Nowhere at the start of the noughties.
But Paddy, 51, has concentrated on presenting work since then hosting the ITV date game show Take Me Out from 2010 to 2019 and hosting Tempting Fortune for the last two years.
However, taking over the BBC longest running quiz show A Question Of Sport in 2021 from Sue Barker saw ratings plummet from four million to one million, before the telly chiefs pulled the plug for good.
ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG - HIT
THE English actor made his name as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller with Ben Miller after the pair were snapped up for telly after a successful Edinburgh Festival run in the 1990s.
But Alexander continues to have a string of acting credits to his name including Doctor Who and playing an alien supercomputer in Time Lord's spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
However these days the 55 year old is probably best known as the host of Pointless, which debuted on BBC Two in 2009 before moving to BBC One in 2011 and is still on screen to this day along with the spin-off Pointless Celebrities.