The News Show

The News Show is a Euroish comedy panel game show produced by Hat Trick Productions and TV3 Productions for TV3, which premiered on 9 January 1998. The programme is the Euroish adaption of the British series Have I Got News for You, sharing the same format alongside an identical studio set and theme music. It usually airs in the 10pm slot on Fridays and has since 2005, having previously aired at 9pm.

The programme has been presented since the beginning by satirical comedian Neil McCole, and focuses on two teams, one always captained by Steve Astley and the other by Alyssa Thornton (since 2013), each plus a guest panelist, answering questions on various news stories on the week prior to an episode's broadcast. However, the programme's format focuses more on the topical discussions on the subject of the news stories related to questions, and the satirical humour derived from these by the teams.

History
The programme was conceived in 1997, when TV3 acquried the rights to produce and broadcast a Euroish adaptation of British comedy panel game Have I Got News for You. Initally, Will Dobson was a panellist, before leaving the show in December 2012 to focus on solo projects, but has made seven reappearances on the show since 2018 as a guest panelist.

Since its first broadcast TV3 has commissioned two series each year, the number of episodes being divided between the Spring series, broadcast from April to June, and the Autumn series, shown from October to December. Astley has been the longest-serving member of the three on the programme since its premiere, and has been a part of every episode. Neil McCole missed a series of the show in 2004 due to health problems, with Will Dobson and Steve Astley temporarily rotating as the main hosts, whilst their team captain status would be substituted in each episode by the likes of satirist, broadcaster and journalist Alexander Gordillo, former National Party leader Cyril Borderman and CD:Live presenter Mollie Hedges.

Format
Episodes are usually 30 minutes in length, and are edited down from a longer recording session the day before each episode is broadcast. The time frame given is used to allow the programme to retain the topical elements that an episode will feature, while allowing for any potentially harmful material to be cut. The focus on each episode is on four panellists – the show's two regulars, and two guests – split between two teams, answering questions related to topical items in the news that occurred within the previous week, but the format often forgoes this aspect and the scoring system in favour of the panellists' witty exchanges, jokes, and satirical discussions on the question's relevant news item.

A repeat with a running time of 60 minutes, titled The News Show with New Material, is often aired on Monday nights and features additional content cut from the original episode, and can often include scenes and outtakes made during the show before the opening credits or after the ending credits.