Eggheads fan favourite quizzer to return for milestone 2,000th episode
‘It’s wonderful to have her back,’ co-star said
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Your support makes all the difference.Eggheads fans will be excited to see one of the original stars return for the 2,000th episode.
The long-running quiz show, which began in 2003, is set to broadcast its milestone episode on Wednesday (22 March).
Eggheads started on BBC Two in 2003, before moving to Channel 5 in 2021 with host Jeremy Vine, who has hosted since 2008. More than 70,000 questions have been asked across the past 24 series.
The show sees a team of contestants pitted against specialist quizzers, who are general knowledge experts.
Fan-favourite star Judith Keppel left the series in 2022 after 19 years on the panel.
However, the 80-year-old will return for the anniversary episode, telling PA: “It’s amazing. It’s lovely to be able to be doing that. Eggheads obviously has been a great success over the years because we’ve gone on such a long time.”
She said of the show’s success: “I think people love bringing teams. What Eggheads has become is what I call wallpaper TV. Students have their TV on all the time, so they see Eggheads and then they bring a team because they think it’d be a laugh.
“And then we have families who come on, and we have pub teams, because they always have quiz teams, and work teams and also charity teams.
Keppel continued: “All sorts of people seem to enjoy bringing teams and participating. I think that’s the secret to it really. It’s not University Challenge, which absolutely bamboozles most people – it’s possible to beat us.”
Chris Hughes, who was one of Keppel’s original quizzing co-stars, said it was “wonderful’ to “have her back on the team”.
Kevin Ashman said that an executive producer downplayed Eggheads when they first filmed it, telling the panellists: “We just see this as a nice afternoon show that will run for a couple of series.”
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But the show exceeded expectations, and swiftly became a huge success.
Vine said he was ‘chuffed” about the milestone, stating: “I get a lot of people say they’ve been watching it since the very start for nearly 20 years. It’s such a big part of my life, I love it so much.”
He added: “When you’re part of something on TV that’s been there a long time, that’s consistent, it is incredibly precious.”
Eggheads airs weekdays at 6.30pm on Channel 5.
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