''Pointless'' is a

British television Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...

quiz show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, s ...

produced by

Banijay Banijay (formerly Banijay Entertainment and later Banijay Group) is a French television production and distribution company which is the world's largest international content producer and distributor with over 120 production companies across 22 ...

subsidiary Remarkable Television for the BBC. It is hosted by

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show '' Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

. In each episode four teams of two contestants attempt to find correct but obscure answers to four rounds of general knowledge questions with the winning team eligible to compete for the show's cash jackpot. All questions used on the show are factual in nature and are asked of a panel of 100 individuals in a pre-conducted public survey. A correct answer scores one point for each survey subject who gave it and the objective is to achieve as low a score as possible. "Pointless" answers are correct responses that were not given by anyone surveyed, score zero points and are the most desirable. Every pointless answer given during the main game increases the jackpot by £250 and the team that reaches the final round has three chances to win it by giving one such answer. ''Pointless'' debuted on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

on 24 August 2009. The success of its first three series led the BBC to move it to

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

from 2011. From late June to mid-July, the programme usually takes a two-week break to make way for the

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. On occasions when BBC1 carries live broadcasts of major news or sport events, the programme is transferred to BBC2, for example during the

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of 2020. the programme is airing its 27th series and has had peak audience figures of over 7 million viewers. An offshoot of the show entitled ''Pointless Celebrities'' was first shown in 2011 and had reached series 15. The format has been exported internationally. On 8 April 2022,

Richard Osman Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, novelist and comedian. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show '' Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz sh ...

announced that he would step down as co-presenter of the series to focus more on his writing career, although he will still co-present with Armstrong on ''Pointless Celebrities'' on a short-term contract before leaving the series fully. Rotating guest-presenters will take his place until a new permanent presenter is found.

Gameplay

Teams of two contestants attempt to provide answers that are not only correct, but also as obscure as possible. The programme initially featured five teams per episode, but the field was later reduced to four. On each episode, contestants answer a series of questions that were put to 100 members of the general public in a previously conducted online survey, which had a time limit of 100 seconds. Once a question is asked at the start of a round, the contestants are given details as to what constitutes a valid answer. If a team's answer is correct, they score one point for each participant who gave it during the survey; an answer given by none of the participants is termed "pointless" and adds nothing to the team's score. If the answer is incorrect, the team scores the maximum of 100 points. Once a question or pass is complete, depending on the specific format of the round, any remaining pointless answers are stated along with the high-scoring answers given in the survey, usually the top three.