The comedians who will be trying NOT to make an audience laugh

New game show features Katherine Ryan and Dermot O’Leary

Audiences will be trying hard not to laugh at comedians in a new TV gameshow.

In Silence Is Golden, a green room of 30 acts, including team captain Katherine Ryan, will try to make the audience crack. Each time someone makes a noise, the initial £250,000 prize pot will be reduced.

If the entertainers get the prize pot to zero, they get to give money to charity.

The show – for the soon-to-be-rebranded U&Dave channel, will be hosted by Dermot O’Leary. He said: 'When a show like this falls into your lap, you can't quite believe your luck. Looking forward to having lots of fun with the audience, our comedians and assorted cast of regulars, all trying to make the audience laugh, gasp and giggle.’

The show was created by Richard Bacon, whose Yes Yes Media will produce the series for UKTV. He said: ‘You know the feeling when you're not allowed to laugh at a funeral? Well, it's that: the game show. And I commend U&Dave for boldly commissioning a show that will cost them a quarter million a week - if the audience is better at playing the game than we are.’

Six hour-long episodes will be broadcast next year, with two other regular team captains who will join Ryan yet to be announced.

U&Dave channel director Cherie Hall said: ‘This is a really original premise for a show and I wish our audience the best of luck as they try and resist the temptation to break the silence - viewers at home will love watching the chaos unfold.’

It is not the first format in which comedians try not to get a laugh. Amazon’s global LOL franchise puts comedians in a Big Brother-style house with those who crack a chuckle evicted.

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Published: 4 Jul 2024