Pointless is a British television quiz show produced by Banijay subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC hosted by Alexander Armstrong.

As of August 2023[update], the programme is airing Series 30[1] and has had peak audience figures of over 7 million viewers.

[2] An offshoot of the show entitled Pointless Celebrities was first shown in 2011 and as of April 2022[update] had reached Series 15.

The first 27 series were co-presented by Richard Osman, who announced on 8 April 2022 that he would step down from the role to focus more on his writing career.

[4] The show was originally to be called Obviously and was conceived by Tom Blakeson, Simon Craig, David Flynn, Nick Mather, Richard Osman and Shaun Parry, producers at Endemol UK, in 2009.

They envisaged it as a "reverse Family Fortunes....rewarding obscure knowledge, while allowing people to also give obvious answers....a quiz which could be sort of highbrow and populist simultaneously".

[5] Osman then approached comedian Alexander Armstrong to be the main presenter; the two men had been peers during their university days.

[5] In 2016, Osman told the Belfast Telegraph, "It's never been a show that's had posters, or trailers, and it's presented by these two slightly inept guys.

[8] Series 29 added Vick Hope, Gyles Brandreth, Ria Lina, Andi Oliver, Nish Kumar, Lucy Porter, Rose Matafeo, Sally Phillips, Hugh Dennis, Anita Rani and Gabby Logan to the rotation.

On each episode, contestants answer a series of questions that were put to 100 members of the general public in a previously conducted online survey, which had a time limit of 100 seconds.

Starting in Series 29, teams can win a £500 bonus in addition to the jackpot by giving three pointless answers in the Final.

Prior to Series 25, teams became ineligible to return after appearing on two consecutive episodes or reaching the final once, whichever occurred first.

The last remaining team receives a pair of trophies to keep regardless of what happens in the Final and now attempts to win the game's jackpot.

The team chooses one category from a list, whereupon the host reads a series of questions associated with it that have multiple correct answers (e.g. characters in the play King Lear or films starring Emily Watson).

By the start of the second half of Series 9, the round was modified to require the contestants to provide answers to any or all of three questions connected to their chosen category.

As of Series 29, the contestants are presented with two questions in their chosen category and can win an additional £500 by giving three pointless answers.

Pointless Celebrities is broadcast within a prime-time slot on Saturday nights and features some differences in how the game works.

Following a news-themed edition of Pointless Celebrities which aired on 27 October 2014, several fans criticised the presence of former The Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who was responsible for the newspaper's infamous front-page report concerning the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

Osman responded to this criticism with at least twenty comments on Twitter, stating that he had not known MacKenzie would appear until "about an hour before" recording, and that he had "strongly argued against it".

[24] For the 1,000th episode, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman traded host and assistant duties and four previous couples who had distinguished themselves in various ways were invited to compete again.

On 23 February 2016, it was announced that the show had been recommissioned by the BBC to make 165 more Regular daytime editions along with 45 prime-time Celebrity Specials taking Pointless to the end of 2017.

[44] A pilot episode presented by Alison Sweeney with Doug Mirabelloas her assistant was produced by Endemol Shine America but never aired.

The Pointless app features animated versions of Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman, and allows the player to tackle questions in a similar format to the TV show.