Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics with a combination of news parody, sketch comedy, and satirical editorials.

The show's format is a mock news program, intercut with comic sketches, parody commercials, and humorous interviews of public figures.

For the 2020 season, the show added Nik Sexton, Tom Stanley and Jon Sturge as field reporters covering the 2020 United States elections.

[1] In addition to the main cast, some members of the show's writing team, including Heidi Brander, Adam Christie, Sophie Buddle, Aisha Brown, Nadine Bhabha, Isabel Kanaan, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Travis Lindsay, Ajahnis Charley, Dan Dillabough and Leonard Chan, also appear in sketches as supporting players.

[citation needed] Bush – who had previously stated that "you can't stump me on world leaders" – acknowledged the purported endorsement with a short statement to the 22 Minutes cameras, which aired as part of the show's regular Talking to Americans feature.

Although the sketch had no effect on Alliance policy, it did obtain international publicity for the show and contributed to the general air of farce surrounding Day's election campaign.

[10] On October 24, 2011, Walsh reprised the role of "Marg, Princess Warrior", conducting an ambush interview of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at his home, which aired on 22 Minutes the following evening.

[11] On November 17, 2004, clips of a sketch for 22 Minutes were released, in which Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish stomped on a George W. Bush doll and performed voodoo on its head, where she said "it would do the least damage".

The incident sparked significant outrage from the opposition Conservatives, who argued that it had the potential to damage diplomatic relations between Canada and the United States.

[12] Richard Martineau wrote a column in Le Journal de Montréal criticizing a sketch aired October 7, 2007, entitled "Quebec Nation".