How British Comedy Show ‘Mock the Week’ Found New Life on TLC After BBC Cancellation: ‘Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder’
The BBC panel comedy show "Mock the Week" has been revived by TLC, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network, three years after the BBC axed it in 2022 due to budget cuts. Created in 2005 by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, the satirical news show ran for 17 years on the BBC before returning in February with a longer 45-minute format, largely the same set and long-time host Dara Ó Briain still at the helm. TLC sees the show as the flagship of its effort to relaunch as a free-to-air comedy and entertainment channel, despite the risks of lower ratings than the BBC and adapting the format for commercial breaks.
Attempts to place the show elsewhere, including at Channel 4, U.K. TV and a U.S. version for Amazon, fell through before TLC came forward, and creator Dan Patterson argues the wait actually helped, as it avoided the show looking like "leftovers" from the BBC. The first TLC season ran for nine episodes from February, peaking at 337,000 viewers for its fifth episode, ahead of the top-rated episode of rival "SNL U.K.". Both shows began second seasons this past weekend, with "Mock the Week" returning on TLC on 13 September and "SNL U.K." on Sky the previous day, and WBD executive Graham Lafferty says the show's audience profile, not just its viewing figures, has proven valuable for the ad-funded channel.
- TLC revived "Mock the Week" three years after BBC cancellation.
- New format is 45 minutes, same set and host Dara Ó Briain.
- Season one peaked at 337,000 viewers; season two began 13 September.
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Mock the Week ran on the BBC for 17 years from 2005, poking fun at the week's news through a panel of comedians, before the corporation cancelled it in 2022 as part of budget cuts. Dara Ó Briain hosted throughout that run and remains at the helm now that the show has resurfaced elsewhere. Its creators, Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, spent time trying to find it a new home.
The show has now been picked up by TLC, a channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery that is trying to reposition itself as a free-to-air comedy and entertainment channel rather than its previous lifestyle-focused output. Other outlets, including Channel 4, U.K. TV and Amazon, had all been considered or attempted at various points but did not go ahead, leaving TLC as the one that finally brought the format back, with a longer episode length and largely the same production style as before.
This matters both for the future of a well-known British comedy format and for TLC's own ambitions, since the network is using the show as a flagship title in its wider relaunch strategy. It also sits within a broader competitive landscape, as it now shares similar territory with newer topical comedy shows such as Sky's SNL U.K., against which its performance and audience are being compared.