# Michael McIntyre's Big Show

Michael McIntyre's Big Show is a British variety and stand-up comedy television series, presented by British comedian Michael McIntyre, and broadcast by BBC One. The show was originally a one-off Christmas special in 2015, Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show, before the BBC announced that they had ordered a full series in 2016. It premiered on 16 April of that year, and concluded on 28 May 2016.
The show features celebrity guests, musical performances, comedy sketches from McIntyre and guest comics. The show was initially recorded at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The series was well received by the public and BBC One renewed the show for a second series which began airing November 2016, concluding in a Christmas special, which was broadcast on Christmas Eve 2016.
The show was commissioned for a third series to air in 2017, which ran for 6 episodes from 18 November. The series finished with its Christmas special on Christmas Eve. It was then announced in December 2017 that the show was renewed for a fourth series that aired in 2018. A fifth series aired in 2019 and was filmed at The London Palladium. Following a break during the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned on 14 January 2023.

## Items and game segments

Each episode of Michael McIntyre's Big Show includes a game segment or an item involving a celebrity or an unexpecting member of the public.
Regular Segments (as of March 2025) :
| Segment | Information |
| Send to All | Send to All (also known as Celebrity Send to All) is a game in the show, which involves McIntyre taking a celebrity's phone and sending a usually awkward text message to all of his or her contacts; at the end of the show, Michael checks the celebrity's phone to see what replies have come through from the contacts. Celebrities that have appeared in this segment include presenter Holly Willoughby, comedian Bradley Walsh, pop stars Cheryl and Olly Murs, former footballer Alan Shearer, Italian dancer and Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli and actors Danny Dyer and Michael Sheen. |
| Unexpected Star of the Show | A member of the public who has no idea they are to appear on the show are told to come to the theatre and are asked to do various jobs that turn out to be fake. In fact, it's all fake, and they are led into a fake room that leads onto the theatre stage, after which either the walls of the fake room fall down or the person opens a door to see the audience. The unexpected star will then go backstage to prepare for their big performance at the end of the show. In series two episode 5 there were two unexpected stars of the show and in series two episode 6 there were 21 unexpected stars of the show; a choir. |
| Celebrity Comedian | In most shows, there is a celebrity comedian who does a 5-minute item in the show while McIntyre goes offstage for a break. Standup comedians such as Russell Howard, Sarah Millican, Catherine Tate, Harry Enfield, Romesh Ranganathan, Colin Cloud, Josh Widdicombe and Jack Whitehall have appeared in or are scheduled to appear in this segment. |
| Midnight Gameshow | From the third series a new segment was introduced called Midnight Gameshow this sees Michael go into one of the audiences' homes at midnight without them knowing and sneaking in to play a gameshow at midnight in the house of the surprised audience member. Michael asks three questions and celebrity guests also make an appearance. In later series, Michael would go into celebrities' houses, rather than members of the public. |
| Big Audience Surprise | Only found in some of the episodes, Audience Surprise is a part of the show where Michael goes into the audience and will ask people questions until he finds the member of the audience he's looking for to surprise them with something about their lives in some way. In the second episode of the second series, McIntyre got a member of the audience up on the stage to play a game titled "Soap or Nope", where an audience member is shown a conveyor belt with actors and lookalikes travelling along it, for the audience viewer to guess whether they were from a soap or not. At the end of the segment, McIntyre introduced the audience member with her long- term pen pal and best friend from Australia, who she had never seen before: hence the fact that the audience member thought that her pen pal was a soap star, stating that she was "definitely soap". More surprises include “See it Win it” where an audience member's boyfriend ended up proposing to her and in the 2019 Christmas show where there was a family reunion. |
| Music Performance | In each episode, a guest performer or group will appear on stage with their latest song. In some episodes, the cast of new musicals appear with a number from their show. All Saints, Ellie Goulding, the cast of the musical School of Rock, Years & Years, Tom Odell, Shane Filan, Michael Ball and Jess Glynne are some of the performers to appear on the show. |
| Christmas Games | In Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show there was a new feature of the show where 4 people, some celebrities, some non-celebrities, are playing against each other in festive games. The first game was Tree Decorating, and the second was putting food into a fridge. |
| Remember Me? | A celebrity guest is presented with a succession of people rising into the middle of the stage through a trap door, the celebrity has to remember who they are. Each person is someone they have previously met; they may be a notable person from their past (e.g. former relationship) or someone they briefly encountered very recently (e.g. florist delivery). |

## Series overview

| Series | Series | Episodes | Originally aired | Originally aired | Ave. UK viewers (millions) |
| Series | Series | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | Ave. UK viewers (millions) |
| | Pilot | Pilot | 25 December 2015 | 25 December 2015 | TBA |
| | 1 | 6 | 16 April 2016 | 28 May 2016 | 4.22 |
| | 2 | 6 | 19 November 2016 | 24 December 2016 | 6.63 |
| | 3 | 6 | 18 November 2017 | 24 December 2017 | 6.97 |
| | 4 | 8 | 17 November 2018 | 12 January 2019 | 7.58 |
| | 5 | 6 | 23 November 2019 | 25 December 2019 | 7.22 |
| | 6 | 6 | 14 January 2023 | 18 February 2023 | 5.36 |
| | 7 | 6 | 13 January 2024 | 17 February 2024 | 5.67 |
| | 8 | 6 | 18 January 2025 | 22 February 2025 | TBC |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Result | Award | Category |
| 2017 | Won | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Performance |
| 2017 | Nominated | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Programme |
| 2018 | Nominated | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Performance |
| 2018 | Nominated | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Programme |
| 2019 | Nominated | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Programme |
| 2024 | Nominated | British Academy Television Awards | Best Entertainment Programme |
| 2024 | Nominated | National Television Awards | The Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award |

## International versions

| Country | Name | Presenter | Channel | Dates |
| France | Le Big Show de Jarry | Jarry | France 2 | 14 May 2022 – present |
| Italy | Big Show con Andrea Pucci | Andrea Pucci | Italia 1 | 27 September 2017 – 18 October 2018 |
| Italy | Big Show - Enrico Papi | Enrico Papi | Canale 5 | 8 April – 8 May 2022 |
| Netherlands | The Big Show met Ruben Nicolai | Ruben Nicolai | RTL 4 | 29 October 2022 – 17 December 2022 |
| Spain | La noche del gran show | Dani Martínez | Telecinco | 2024 TBA |
| United Kingdom (original version) | Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show | Michael McIntyre | BBC One | 25 December 2015 |
| United Kingdom (original version) | Michael McIntyre's Big Show | Michael McIntyre | BBC One | 16 April 2016 – present |