Best European game show series

The Traitors (2023)

The Traitors - Murder at the Castle: A ruthless game of trust, fear, strategy, mental warfare, and total deception. The groundbreaking crime-reality’s nerve-wracking plot is co-written by life and the participants themselves, and like in any good crime story, the big and final truth will only be revealed on the last pages! 22 celebrities head to a Tudor-style castle to take part in a nerve-wracking challenge: they must survive a "series of murders" to win a grand prize of up to 20 million forints. The "murderers" are hiding among the players—they are the Traitors, who mercilessly kill their Innocent companions under the cover of night. The Innocents’ task is to expose the Traitors and, if they fall under suspicion, convince their companions of their own innocence.

Celebrity Juice (2008)

Tabloid focused quiz show based on the nation's obsession with all things celebrity.

Richard Osman's House of Games (2017)

Each week a group of four famous faces go toe to toe in testing their general knowledge skills in a variety of entertaining games.

Das Duell um die Welt (2012)

Joko gegen Klaas – Das Duell um die Welt is a German reality series, broadcast on the German television network ProSieben on prime time. In English the show is called Joko vs. Klaas – The Battle for the World .It is a show that pins its two stars against one another in a series of challenges all over the globe. Hosts Joachim ‘Joko’ Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf give each other a series of outrageous and tough challenges in countries all over the world; they know where they’re going but have no idea what they will have to do until they get there. It is a travel game show and reality series where each host tries to push the other to their limits in an attempt to be crowned the “world champion” by taking on all the obstacles and coming out on top as the one who has won the battle for world domination.

University Challenge (1962)

Academic quiz show where teams of students from UK universities answer questions on all manner of subjects.

Ciao Darwin (1998)

Ciao Darwin is a variety game show format from Italy sold under licence to several countries, including Romania, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Canada, USA, China and Greece.There are two competing teams of about 50 people each, usually made up of people who fit certain opposing stereotypes. In each game two members of the audience are selected at random, one from each team, indicated by a light in front of them which remains illuminated when all the other team members' lights have gone off.The games involve contestants competing in acts of bravery, style and talent, some of which are designed to humiliate the contestants, especially an assault course which was introduced with the Italian version in 2010, and the Finale which is a water tank game.

Pointless Celebrities (2011)

Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman present a celebrity version of the general knowledge quiz in which contestants try to come up with the answers that nobody else could think of.

Громкий вопрос (2021)

Du gewinnst hier nicht die Million bei Stefan Raab (2024)

Huskestue (2015)

Richard Osman's House of Games Night (2020)

Each week a group of four famous faces go toe-to-toe testing their general knowledge in a variety of entertaining games. The series includes all the favourite, funny games from the BBC Two series, with the addition of some new items for the prime time shows, including the appearance of a house band and some special guests. As ever, all of the games are rooted in general knowledge and can be played along at home by viewers.

Wetten, dass..? (1981)

Wetten, dass..? is a German-language entertainment television show. The core gimmick of the show was the bets: ordinary people offer to perform some unusual (often bizarre) and very difficult task. The other major attraction of the show was the top-ranking celebrity guests. Each of the guests had to bet on the outcome of one of the performances and offer a wager, in recent years usually a humorous or mildly humiliating, originally more charitable, activity to be carried out if they lose. Until 1987, each of the celebrities bet on all the performances and the most accurate one was selected to be that show's Wettkönig ("bet king"). Ever since, one of the people performing the task is selected by a telephone vote.

The Traitors: Uncloaked (2024)

Catch up from the castle. The latest banished and murdered have their say with Ed Gamble. How will they react to the betrayals, revelations, mind games and manipulations?

KVN (1964)

KVN is a Russian humour TV show and competition where teams compete by giving funny answers to questions and showing prepared sketches. The programme was first aired by the First Soviet Channel on November 8, 1961. Eleven years later, in 1972, when few programmes were being broadcast live, Soviet censors found the students' impromptu jokes offensive and anti-Soviet and banned KVN. The show was revived fourteen years later during the Perestroika era in 1986, with Alexander Maslyakov as its host. It is one of the longest-running TV programmes on Russian Television. It also has its own holiday on November 8, the birthday of the game, which KVN players celebrate every year since it was announced and widely celebrated for the first time in 2001.

100 % logique : La réponse est sous vos yeux (2022)

French adaptation of the British quiz show where contestants try to answer a question that only 1% of the country can get right.

The Traitors (2022)

Get them before they get you. 22 strangers, one castle, £120k - Claudia Winkleman hosts the ultimate reality game of trust and treachery. Let the mind games begin.

Britain's Got Talent (2007)

Britain's best (and worst) variety acts compete to win a spot at the Royal Variety Show.

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (2002)

Twelve celebrities are abandoned in the Australian jungle. In order to earn food, they must perform Bushtucker Trials which challenge them physically and mentally.

The Circle France (2020)

Status and strategy collide in this social media competition where online players flirt, befriend and catfish their way toward 100,000 euros.

Race Across the World (2019)

In a frenetic race across the world, travellers can choose any route they like - but no flights or phones are allowed. On the trip of a lifetime, which pair will finish first?

Celebrity Big Brother (2001)

Celebrity Big Brother is a British television reality game show. The show follows a number of celebrity contestants, known as housemates, who are isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one of the housemates is evicted by a public vote, with the last housemate named the winner.

Takeshi's Castle (2002)

Welcome to the Takeshi's Castle, a Japanese game show involving 100 to 140 contestants who try to go through a series of silly physical challenges designed to eliminate them. Designed like a live-action Mario game, thousands of people have come to take on Takeshi's Castle to try and win the ¥1,000,000 prize but hardly anyone does! Each episode was filmed over the entire length of the day, with some challenges going well into the night.

Big Brother (UK) (2000)

A British reality television game show in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house for several weeks, trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run.

007: Road to a Million (2023)

Nine pairs of everyday people are unleashed on an epic global adventure through a series of Bond inspired challenges, for a shot at winning a life-changing £1,000,000 prize. The Controller, Brian Cox, is the mastermind behind the game, watching the pairs as they hunt for 10 questions he’s hidden around the world.

The Circle (UK) (2018)

Players from all walks of life will compete to win up to £50,000. All living in one modern block but separately in individual apartments, the players will never come face-to.face, and can only interact with one another through an specially-designed app called The Circle.

MasterChef (2005)

John Torode and Gregg Wallace are looking for the country's next star chef. Those who make it through to the quarter-final must prove their knowledge and passion for food. The heats have produced four exceptional cooks, but only one of them will make it through today to become a semi-finalist. Initially named Masterchef Goes Large, the series changed it's name to Masterchef in 2008.

The Masked Singer (UK) (2020)

A singing competition where celebrities compete with each other but with one particularity: their identity is hidden by full masks. The British adaptation of the worldwide hit.

Junior Taskmaster (2024)

Spin-off of the award-winning Taskmaster. In each heat, a group of five children will attempt a series of tasks that test creative, physical and intellectual skills - in the hope of impressing the Junior Taskmaster and scoring top points in their subsequent studio appearances.

Pointless (2009)

Quiz in which contestants try to score as few points as possible by plumbing the depths of their general knowledge to come up with the answers no-one else can think of.

Kongen befaler (2019)

The taskmaster has invited five of Norway's best comedians to solve a number of tasks.