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This is a list of episodes from the satirical sport-based panel game They Think It's All Over.
From series 1 until series 5 the show was chaired by Nick Hancock, with team captains David Gower (and regular panellist Lee Hurst) and Gary Lineker (and regular panellist Rory McGrath) and a guest on each team. For series 6 and 7, Lee Hurst's position was switched with various celebrity guests such as Phill Jupitus and Alan Davies. From series 8 onwards Jonathan Ross replaced Lee Hurst permanently. From series 16 onwards David Gower and Gary Lineker were replaced as team captains by Phil Tufnell and David Seaman. From series 18, Ian Wright replaced David Seaman as captain. From series 19, Lee Mack became the new host and Boris Becker replaced Phil Tufnell as team captain, while Jonathan Ross was replaced by Sean Lock as the regular panellist on Boris' team for the 2006 specials.
The show was cancelled following series 19, although there were two specials in the summer of 2006 and a special episode aired live as part of 24 Hour Panel People in 2011, for which Hancock, Tufnell and Hurst returned (in spite of the fact that Tufnell and Hurst had been regulars at different points in the show).
Episode list
Over the 19 series, 154 episodes were broadcast. There have also been two exclusive-to-video editions and a live webcast version for Comic Relief.
The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows:
– indicates David (Gower)'s/Phil's/Boris' team won
– indicates Gary's/David (Seaman)'s/Ian's team won
In the Christmas special, the series was retroactively awarded to David's team after it was revealed that Gary and Rory had cheated in this episode's Feel The Sportsman round by poking holes in their blindfolds with needles.
^ Christmas Special
The final score was 15–15, so Nick Hancock played an excerpt from an interview with Arsenal'sRay Parlour before the 1993 FA Cup Final, and the teams had to guess how many times he said the word "obviously". Gary's team guessed 6, while David's team guessed 5; the correct answer was 7, making Gary's team the winners.
The final score was 17–17, so Nick Hancock asked Gary a question from Gary Lineker's Soccer Quiz Book, which Gary was unable to answer, making David's team the winners.
The final score was 20–20, so Nick Hancock asked David for the name of the author of David Gower's Cricket Quiz Book. David failed to give the correct answer of Patrick Allen, so Gary's team were declared the winners.
Replaced Will Carling, who "...had decided to pull out at the last minute."
The final score was 19–19, and as both teams had won three of the previous six episodes, a tiebreaker of Rock-paper-scissors was played, with David's scissors beating Gary's paper.
The episode finished 17–17. Lee suggested that if Suzanne could do the splits, their team should be declared the winners; Nick instead suggested that Lee and Rory should attempt the splits. Lee went first, but Rory forfeited his turn, making David's team the winners.
Jupitus stood in for Hurst.
Gary's team had actually won 22–17, but while everyone else in the studio wore their chosen Christmas outfits, Gary refused to wear his Little Bo Peep costume, so Nick penalised him 5 points, unless he wore it, which he declined, so as a tie-breaker, the teams were shown some footage of hamsterdrag racing, and had to guess which of the blue and red racer won. David's team correctly chose the red racer, giving them the win, despite Gary then desperately trying to put on the Little Bo Peep costume after the clip
The game originally finished 18–17 to Gary's team, but Nick Hancock announced that Gary had sweet talked the answer to a question from two weeks earlier from the autocue girl and docked them a point. They lost in a "What happened next?" tiebreaker.
The Christmas and New Year's specials were not considered part of Series 6, so David's team were declared the series winners by four games to two.
The episode finished 18–18, so David and Gary arm-wrestled each other as a tiebreaker, with David winning.
^ Guest captain in this episode
Gary's team won a tiebreaker for the series by guessing closer to the price of a VHS copy of Rory McGrath's Commercial Breakdown than David's team.
Gary's team had won the episode, but during the show, guest Rich Hall looked at one of the answer cards during The Name Game round, which originally saw Gary's team docked 3 points, but at the start of the following show, it was revealed that following more complaints, Gary's team were disqualified and the win was given to David's team.
Following the "debacle" involving the incident 2 shows previously, Gary was dropped as team captain for this episode for "bringing the show into disrepute".
The episode finished 16–16, so the team captains were asked to guess what percentage of refereeing decisions, according to a five-year study of refereeing decisions in over 40,000 football matches by sociology teacher Alan Briscoe, favoured Manchester United. Mark guessed 55%, while David guessed 56%; the correct answer was 87%, making David's team the winners.
For a series tiebreaker, Nick Hancock asked Gary to name the title of any story in Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories. As he was unable to do so, the series was awarded to David's team.
The game originally ended 16–16, so for a tiebreaker Jonathan and Rory took turns on a mechanical bull. Rory lasted longer with 20 seconds to Jonathan's 15 so Gary's team were declared the winners.
After it was revealed that Rory had bribed the autocue writer with champagne for the answers to several previous questions, Nick disqualified Gary's team and awarded the episode to David's team.
All the panellists are dressed as pantomime characters. Gail Porter also appears as a Christmas fairy in-between rounds.
The episode finished 16–16, so David and Gary engaged in a bout of mashed potato wrestling as a tiebreaker, with the audience declaring Gary the winner.
Gary and Rory's team were disqualified as it was revealed that before Christmas Rory had tried to bribe the show's new guest booker.
The episode finished 16–16, so the teams were tasked with determining how long Greg Rusedski's serve would take to reach the Moon. Jonathan's guess of a day and a half was closer to the correct answer of 72 days than Rory's guess of 765 days.
The episode finished 12–12, so Jonathan and Rory played a tiebreaker in which they competed to see who could remain face down in a bowl of water while holding their breath for the longest, with Rory winning.
Because David and Gary had won four games each, they played a sumo bout in inflatable costumes for a tiebreaker, with Gary winning.
The episode finished 15–15, so Nasser Hussain was asked to decide the game by calling a coin toss; he guessed heads, while the coin landed tails up, making Gary's team the winners.
^ Despite originally winning these episodes, Gary and Rory's team were retrospectively deducted three points in the fifth episode of series 12 after it was discovered Rory had been cheating by looking at answers before the show's recording, David and Jonathan's team were therefore declared the winners for both shows.
The 100th episode. David Gower and Gary Lineker switched places for this episode as Gary Lineker and Rory McGrath were caught cheating the week before.
The episode finished 17–17, so David, Rory, Gary, and Jonathan played a tiebreaker game of musical chairs, with Jonathan winning the game for Gary's team.
As both teams had won four episodes in the series, a tiebreaker was played in which brothers Jonathan and Paul Ross competed to see who could stay on a surfing practice machine for longest; Paul won by staying on for 13 seconds to Jonathan's 9 seconds, handing victory for the series to Gary's team.
Paul Merson was to guest captain, but had to pull out as his partner had just given birth.
David's team were declared the winners in the following episode after Rory was accused of cheating during this episode.
Again, Paul Merson was to guest-captain, but pulled out after being taken ill.
A former American soccer player turned comedian and broadcaster.
As David and Gary had won four games each, they competed in a tiebreaker race for the series on practice skeleton bobsleds, with Gary winning.
Gary's team were docked 3 points for cheating during "What's Going On?", while 20 points were awarded to David's team. Gary's team managed to get half a point back for answering David's "Celebrations" question.
As David and Gary had won three games each, all six panellists participated in a round the table game of table tennis to decide the series. David was the last man standing, handing his team the series win.
Gary's team were docked 10 points when Gary peeked at his team's answers for "The Name Game", and when he read off the answers he had copied down, the adjudicators blew the whistle for full time after only 50 of the usual 90 seconds.
70s Special. Everyone was dressed in 1970s clothes. Jonathan Ross dressed as Aladdin Sane.
80s Special. Everyone was dressed in 1980s clothes. Nick Hancock wore a mullet wig, Jonathan Ross dressed as Adam Ant and Rory McGrath as Boy George.
The episode finished 17–17, so Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan played a tiebreaking game of snooker on a toy table on which only the black ball remained to be potted, with Ronnie winning. However, the following week, Gary's team were caught having looked at the answers to their "Excuses" question in advance, and Nick Hancock announced that he was docking them two victories. But as they were announced to be trailing by just one game at the beginning of the series finale, the penalty was apparently reduced to one victory.
The episode originally finished 17–12, but Sharron's team were docked 5 points for cheating during "The Name Game". The episode's tiebreaker involved launching football boots at cutouts of David Beckham's head, with Graeme Le Saux the only panellist to do so successfully, winning the episode for Sharron's team.
As Gary and his opposing captains had won five games each, for a series tiebreaker, the teams had to guess how many sexually deviant acts Rory had been implied to have committed in the first fifteen series. Jonathan's guess of "the high 50s" was closer than Gary's guess of 427 to the actual answer of 74, handing David's team the series win.
Having won four games each, Phil Tufnell and David Seaman played a tiebreaker for the series by seeing which of them could fish the most plastic fish out of a paddling pool in one minute; Phil was the winner with five fish to David's two.
Although Phil's team had won four of the first seven games, it was David's team who were announced to be leading by four games to three at the beginning of the series finale, and their win in this episode handed them a win for the series.
World Cup Special
The episode finished 16–16, so Boris and Ian played a game of blow football against each other, with Ian winning by scoring a goal first.
Summer Special
Comic Relief Special episode webcast live as part of 24 Hour Panel People. Nick Hancock reprised his role as host for this episode only.