It’s official: a Mock the Week reboot will come to British TV in 2026, just three years after it was axed by the BBC.
The satirical news commentary show, which boosted the comedy and TV careers of Hugh Dennis, Dara Ó Briain, Frankie Boyle, and Russell Howard will return next year.
Beginning in 2005, the comedy panel series took a light-hearted look at weekly news, and was a huge success, staying on the air until November 2022.
Now it’s been confirmed that Mock the Week will return on TLC, as the channel becomes free-to-air in the UK in January 2026, bringing a load of scripted and non-scripted content with it.
A statement from Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that the show’s return, produced by Angst Productions, would give the ‘much-loved’ series a ‘new look’.
No cast news has been confirmed yet, but fans will be hoping to hear from Hugh, Frankie, Russell, and fellow comedian Andy Parsons once more.
TLC began as a successful channel in the US, launching in the UK in 2013 -bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery have decided to revamp it in the UK, axing HGTV at the same time.
From 2026, TLC will also feature scripted content, such as The Big Bang Theory and its long-running comedy drama spin-off series Young Sheldon.
Mock the Week began with modest viewing figures, average around 1.5 million viewers per episode during its first group of episodes on BBC Two.
It was towards the end of the 2000s that number started to climb, with 3.8 million people turning in to watch episodes featuring comedians such as Ed Byrne.
However, viewing figures began to fall again as the 2010s continued, with the final episode of the 2021 Mock the Week season watched by just 1.63 million.
Any future casting decisions will be likely to continue on from the ethos established by producers as the show continued, with the diversity of comedians increasing as it went along.
Milton Jones, a comedian who appeared on the show many times, told BAD VIBES in 2022 that Mock the Week had become ‘much nicer’ and more balanced now that it was no longer just ‘seven white blokes’ telling jokes.
