Entered into: Best Comedy Format 2022
Produced by: Expectation TV and Bacon Media
For: Channel 4
Distributed by: NBC
I Literally Just Told You is the first gameshow in history where the contestants are given every answer, and the first where questions are written, literally, as the show is happening. They just need to pay attention to everything that’s going on. With each correct answer adding more cash to their prize pot, can the competitors keep their focus and remember the things they’ve seen and heard just minutes before? In the dramatic finale, the remaining two contestants set each other questions. It’s a chaotic battle of wits.
I Literally Just Told You is an innovative comedy-entertainment show hosted by Jimmy Carr. The play along quiz is the ultimate test in short-term memory, as four contestants are tested live on the show about anything and everything that’s happening right there and then. From the mind of Richard Bacon, the show aims to be a unique and genuinely fresh format that’s challenging questions push the boundaries of a traditional quiz show. The format pushes host Jimmy Carr’s lightning-fast wit to the limit, as the questions develop as the show unravels.
Upon its release the show received high praise. The Times said, ‘It doesn’t depend much on general knowledge or smartarse nerdery, but on people’s powers of observation and memory…Carr is a quick, funny host’ with The Telegraph saying ‘It’s fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously, with Carr getting the tone just right as he gently mocks the contestants without being remotely cruel’. The acclaimed host of the show also issued it high praise, ‘It’s such an unusual, weird and wonderful show. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done’.
The episode put forward for nomination is a great example of Jimmy exercising his off the cuff humour and, of course, reminding the contestants that he literally just told them the answer at any given opportunity, which is certainly a quiz-show rarity. With multiple celebrity guests surprisingly popping up in each episode the contestants are kept on their toes, as the likes of Simon Rimmer, Tim Lovejoy and Nadine Coyle help create fuel for the question writers.
These question writers, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (host at Sky At Night) and Emy Adamson (the show’s actual Researcher) brilliantly flank Jimmy, reeling off facts and figures aplenty as they fill up the contestants minds throughout the show. With the question writing happening live as the show goes on, it’s credit to Maggie and Emy that they can continue to charm and entertain in a comedy-entertainment offering under such immense pressure.
With so much information being tossed around it is hard for the contestants and viewers to know what information to focus on. This can lead to some hilarious confusion, such as when contestant Annurai fails to answer a question on the host himself, mistaking him with the show’s creator, Richard Bacon.
With contestants winning upwards of £25,000 the show always winds up to a tense and sometimes emotional final round as the contestants choose their own questions to ask each other.
All the above ingredients make this a hilarious, wonderfully innovative format that Literally anyone can play.
