Pointless

During an elimination round, teams aim to score as few points as possible, with the team having the highest score at the end of the round being eliminated from the game. Each round consists of a question derived from a subject, with each member of a team required to give an answer during a pass; each round consists of two passes, and teams are required, prior to the question being given, to decide who answers during the first pass, with the other answering during the second pass, without conferring. The order of play differs; in the first elimination round, it is determined by drawing lots in advance of recording, while in the second, it is determined by the scores in the previous round, though in both, the team nearest to the host answers first, moving on towards the team farthest from them, before going back in reverse order during the second pass. In the event of a tie, the tied teams are allowed to confer and give an extra answer to the question, until one team manages to score more points than the others; if no team can give a correct answer on this pass, the question is thrown out and a new one is asked in its place.

Seven different formats for the questions are or have been used during the programme's run for the elimination rounds in each game:

• Open-Ended – Contestants are given the question, and have free choice of what answer to give. In the first series, this format was used three times in this round, before subsequent episodes used it no more than once. A variant of this format was introduced in the seventh series, in which a list of categories is shown and contestants can give an answer as long as it fitted into any of the categories shown (for example, they could name any member that was in any band on the list); contestants are not required to identify which category their answer belongs to, and will be still credited for a correct answer even if they attribute it to the wrong category. This variant of the format was mainly designed to combine several smaller categories into a round (e.g. the films of several different actors) or to narrow down a wider category (for example, by limiting answers to those starting with certain letters).
• Possible Answers – Introduced in the second series, contestants are given a board of potential answers to a question and must pick up, attempting to find the obscure ones on the board and avoid picking out a wrong answer. Each pass consists of two boards, each possessing at least one pointless answer and one incorrect answer, the latter usually having some indirect link (often humorous) with the question, with Osman going through the board after a pass, revealing the points scores of the correct answers and which were incorrect. This format allowed categories to be used in which no commonly agreed definitive list of correct answers exists. It was discontinued following the end of the fifth series, but revived as a bonus round midway through series 23.
• Clues and Answers – Introduced in the third series, contestants are given a list of clues related to the topic of the question, whereupon they must select a clue and provide the correct answer connected to it. An example of this format is that a list could contain the names of different battles, and the questions requires a contestant to name the country that it took place in (e.g., "the Battle of Hastings" – "England"). Although the round follows a similar style to that of the "Possible Answers" format, there is no guarantee that contestants may find a pointless answer from within the list.
• Linked Categories – Introduced in the fifth series, each pass consists of two closely related categories; one team member provides an answer related to the first category, while the other provides an answer to the second category. The format follows the same principles as that of the "Open-ended" format, but was rarely used, and was later discontinued after the series.
• Picture Board – Introduced in the seventh series, contestants are shown a picture or pictures, which contain many people or objects that they have to identify, attempting to seek out those that are more obscure than others. The format is occasionally used, and often replaces the "Open-ended" format when it does.
• Word Formation – Introduced in the twenty-fourth series, contestants have to switch or change one letter from the original word to form a new word (e.g., "Soot" becomes "Spot"). Contestants can even switch it to a letter that is not in the English Alphabet, like in one instance, where in a special A was in one of the words, and the word was also a pointless answer, yet it rarely ever happens. It has only been shown 3 times as of Episode 33.
• Part Identification - Also introduced in the twenty-fourth series, contestants are given 7 clues and 4 possible answers. The goal is to identify which of the four possible answers match one of the 7 clues. So far, it has only been shown once in the 25th episode of the series.

The two teams that survive elimination in the initial rounds, now compete against each other, answering questions with the intention of finding the lowest answers possible. Both teams can now confer, and the winning team of this round moves on to the Final. The format of this round has differed, as listed below:

• Series 1 – Both teams provide as many correct answers as they can to a single question, with the aim of providing answers that score as few points as possible, with the round ending if a team goes above 100 points. The team who scored the lowest in the elimination rounds gets pick choosing which of two categories to answer, with both teams required to give an answer on each turn, regardless of their opponents going over 100. If both teams go above 100, then the team that is nearer to 100 goes through to the final.
• Series 2–5 – Both teams compete in a multi-question best-of contest; best-of-five for the second series, best-of-three from the third series. Each team must give an answer to a question, and once both have done so, the lower score of the two wins the question and earns that team a point. Each question will usually have a minimum of four answers to choose from, and the order of play is that the team who acquired the fewest points in the elimination rounds gets to answer first on the first question.
• Since Series 6 – Both teams compete in a multi-question best-of-three contest; while the format is the same since the third series, questions are now designed around the "Clues and Answers" format. Each question now has five answers to choose from, and there are three kinds of questions in this round: a picture/sound question, in which contestants are shown five pictures or are played five sounds or pieces of music, labelled A to E, and must identify them, often with some letters given as an additional clue; a facts question, in which contestants are given a list of clues to notable facts, and must identify the answer based upon the clue given; a word puzzle question, in which the answers, connected to the subject of the question, are given in the form of an anagram, an initialism, have alternate letters missing, or complete a quote or title.

Midway through series 23, a new round was added to give the contestants more opportunities to increase the jackpot. It is played between the second elimination round and the head-to-head, and is similar to the previously retired 'possible answers' format. Both pairs of contestants are shown a question and six possible answers. Two of the answers are pointless, two are correct but score some points, and the other two are incorrect (often with a humorous link to the question). Both pairs of contestants will choose one answer. There is no elimination, but if any pointless answers are found, they will each add £250 to the jackpot.

The winning team that survives both the elimination rounds and the head-to-head receives a trophy to keep, regardless of what happens in the final round, and now attempt to win the game's jackpot; the host reminds viewers of the amount, including any rollover from previous games. In order to win it, the team first chose a category from several offered to them, whereupon they are given questions connected to it with multiple correct answers (e.g., name films directed by a specified director or name a song by a specified singer), and have up to 60 seconds to jointly provide three answers. If any individual response is pointless, the team wins the jackpot; otherwise, it is rolled over to the next show.

Originally, contestants could choose from one of three categories, with those not chosen remaining in the list for five days or until they were picked. This format was used between the first and fifth series. The number of categories to choose from was then increased to five at the start of the sixth series. By the start of the second half of the ninth series, the format of the round was modified in that the winning team must supply answers within three subcategories connected to their chosen category, though they may elect to go for any or all three subcategories with their answers. In addition, they must state which subcategory each of their answer belongs to; if it is for the wrong one, their answer is considered incorrect.

The first series aired on BBC Two between August and October 2009, with the corporation announcing on the day of the final episode's broadcast that it had commissioned a second series. The series' audience had peaked at 1.69 million viewers, 17.2% of audience share for the timeslot,[4] while averaging around 1 million viewers per episode.[8] The second series saw audiences grow modestly; the format was tweaked prior to the start of series three, reducing the number of rounds and giving more time for banter between the hosts which had previously been edited out.[8] The change saw strong viewer growth, and the show was moved to the BBC's main channel BBC One in 2011.[8][10] By 2013, the programme records four episodes in one day,[11] and averaged 3.6 million viewers daily, gaining more viewers than ITV game show The Chase, which airs in roughly the same time slot.[10]

In February 2014, Pointless was extended for another 204 episodes, giving three more series, taking the total commissioned to 13 in February 2014. A further 24 celebrity episodes were also ordered.[12] For the 1,000th episode, which aired on 16 January 2017, Armstrong and Osman traded host and assistant duties, and four previous couples who had distinguished themselves in various ways were invited to compete again. The jackpot for this episode began at £2,500 (the usual starting value for Pointless Celebrities), and every pointless answer during the main game added £1,000 to it. 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.[13][14] On 4 September 2017, it was announced that the BBC had commissioned a further 204 episodes, including 165 regular and 39 celebrity specials.[15]

With the start of the 11th series of Pointless Celebrities on 23 December 2017, the show's set design was changed, with some new graphics, and an updated intro replaced the one used since the show's debut. This extended to the 19th series of Pointless, which started on 2 April 2018.