They’re here! Thanks for all your votes and comments, you can read the full Poll write-up at UKGameshows.com and I suggest you do because under the cut are this year’s statistics.
Alright don’t say you weren’t warned. This year we have percentages for *all* eligible shows in the Hall of Fame and Shame for you – as usual, the percentage represents the amount of ballots it appeared on.
HALL OF FAME
Destination X 53.4%
Genius Game 46.6
Celebrity Puzzling 39.8
99 to Beat 37.5
Win Win 22.7
Y Deis 18.2
Silence is Golden 15.9
The Inner Circle 15.9
NFL Big Game Night 11.4
The Inheritance 11.4
Chess Masters 10.2
World’s Apart 10.2
Sally Lindsay’s Quiz Night 9.1
The Honesty Box 5.7
Faking It 4.5
Am I The Asshole 3.4
The Great Escapers 3.4
Y Llais 3.4
Game of Wool 2.3
Sound Mate 2.3
Stranded on Honeymoon Island 2.3
Amour a Mynydd 1.1
Boom! Bang! 1.1
Hot Takes 1.1
The Great B and B Challenge 1.1
HALL OF SHAME
The Inner Circle 46.6%
Win Win 29.5
99 to Beat 23.9
Destination X 22.7
Genius Game 21.6
Silence is Golden 20.5
Chess Masters 18.2
Stranded on Honeymoon Island 17.0
The Inheritance 14.8
Am I The Asshole 12.5
NFL Big Game Night 12.5
The Honesty Box 9.1
Celebrity Puzzling 8.0
Sally Lindsay’s Quiz Night 8.0
Game of Wool 5.7
Faking It 3.4
The Great Escapers 2.3
World’s Apart 2.3
Amour a Mynydd 1.1
Boom! Bang! 1.1
Hot Takes 1.1
Sound Mate 1.1
Y Deis 1.1
The Great B and B Challenge 0.0
Y Llais 0.0
To make the Golden Five and Streaming Five lists a bit less overwhelming, I’m only featuring shows that acquired at least two votes.
GOLDEN FIVE
Only Connect 42.0%
The Traitors 37.5
The 1% Club 33.0
Taskmaster 20.5
Gladiators 17.0
The Wheel 15.9
Richard Osman’s House of Games 11.4
The Chase 11.4
Genius Game 10.2
Limitless Win 6.8
The Masked Singer 6.8
Bullseye 5.7
Countdown 5.7
Who Wants to be a Millionaire 5.7
Bridge of Lies 4.5
Deal or No Deal 4.5
Mastermind 4.5
The Hit List 4.5
Tipping Point 4.5
Jeopardy 4.5
The Finish Line 3.4
The Unbelivable Truth 3.4
Destination X 3.4
99 to Beat 2.3
I’m a Celeb 2.3
Pointless 2.3
Popmaster 2.3
Race Across the World 2.3
The Inner Circle 2.3
University Challenge 2.3
Wheel of Fortune 2.3
Win Win 2.3
Y Deis 2.3
STREAMING FIVE
Last One Laughing UK 52.3%
Jet Lag 29.5
Lateral 27.3
007 Road to a Million 20.5
Game Changer 14.8
The Devil’s Plan 2 14.8
Squid Game: The Challenge 2 13.6
What’s In The Box? 13.6
The Loop 8.0
Physical Asia 6.8
Crime Scene Zero 5.7
Know Where To Hide 5.7
Theme Park Dash 5.7
House of Cats 4.5
Million Dollar Secret 4.5
Simon Cowell: The Next Act 4.5
Battle Camp 3.4
Final Draft 3.4
Here’s What You Do 3.4
Last Pundit Standing 3.4
Parlor Room 3.4
Um Actually 3.4
Building the Band 2.3
Make Some Noise 2.3
Was 2025 better or worse than 2024?
For me, worse. Although 2024 was a letdown thanks to Wheel of Fortune and You Bet, I could still watch these with the sound off. 2025 didn’t have anything I was excited about beforehand and Celeb Puzzling my fav show from last year is the only one I would watch again.
This year if 1000 Heartbeats is coming back then maybe there’s something I will like. The Floor, Hot Seat etc not keen on and it’s mostly all reality, which isn’t my thing.
2025 was the first year I struggled to find 5 shows to put in the Hall of Fame. Not sure if it’s because of less gameshows overall or it not being a golden year in general.
2026 already has two in the first month, so hopefully this year is more promising.
Yeah I think January has already been more exciting than most of 2025 already.
Must be the highest crossover between the Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame. To be honest you could have kept the doors to the Hall of Fame shut this year but am glad 99 to Beat got some love – I do think it’s a more entertaining way to cut a high number of returning contestants down to one winner over multiple episodes than The Floor.
Saddened to learn of Jenny Turner’s passing.
Not long before UKGS went down, I made the decision to permanently stop being a fully-committed wiki editor – not just UKGS, but *all* wikis – and instead only edit them very occasionally. This wasn’t a decision I made on the spot, and nor was it an easy one to make, given that I had been editing wikis ever since I first edited the ‘Pedia all the way back in 2009, but there were two reasons for making it: (1) being a fully-committed wiki editor had, alas, become far more trouble than it was worth for me, and (2) I was preparing to return to university as a mature student, which obviously was going to take up most of my time and required making sacrifices as necessary.
But Weaver is absolutely right. Jenny *was* a brilliant editor, and some of her contributions to UKGS are indeed among the very best. (He mentions her takedown of Love Thy Neighbour – I can’t quite believe that show was already fifteen years ago.) She did indeed know when to be sour, without ever being malicious. And she *was* able to keep the other editors in line, even when some went overboard. (I know *I* went overboard quite a bit – certainly there were several occasions where I lost my temper completely, which I regret now, and perhaps I *did* overdo it with the punctuation-mark smileys in my edit summaries.)
This might be a cliché, but I do wish I had appreciated Jenny’s efforts that bit more. And this might be a cliché, too, but one way or another, UKGS *is* poorer without her.
Rest in peace, Jenny.