This is a list of episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, a satirical music-based panel game. As of 18 December 2024,[update] 319 episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks have aired, concluding the thirty-second series.
The show was originally chaired by Mark Lamarr, with Sean Hughes and Phill Jupitus as team captains and two guests on each team. Lamarr left following series 17 and series 18 was chaired by a series of guest hosts. One of these, satirical Popworld presenter Simon Amstell, took over as presenter from series 19. Amstell left following series 22 and the show was chaired by guests until the end of Series 27. For Series 28 the show was presented by Rhod Gilbert.
Bill Bailey replaced Sean Hughes from series 11. During series 21, Bailey was unable to attend filming and so Noel Fielding provided cover for three episodes (2, 3 and 4). Bailey left permanently following this series and was replaced by guest captains until Fielding returned full-time in series 23. Professor Green replaced Fielding as team captain for one episode in series 26 (episode 5). Jupitus was unable to appear in one episode of series 25 (episode 6), the only episode of the show's original run he did not appear in (not including the 2011 Comic Relief episode for 24 Hour Panel People, his position on that occasion was taken by Frankie Boyle). In June 2013, an eight-part clip show series aired under the name What a Load of Buzzcocks. Each episode focussed on a different year of the show and the musical stories from that year. Alex James of Blur narrated all episodes of the series.
The show continued on Sky Max from 2021 onwards, hosted by Greg Davies, with Noel Fielding and Daisy May Cooper as captains, and Jamali Maddix as a regular team member. For the fourth Sky season, Cooper was no longer team captain, with Sophie Willan being team captain in half of the episodes instead. Sky started numbering the seasons from 1 again.[1][2]
Guests are listed from the hosts' far right to far left. Guests who are best known as part of a musical group have the group after their name in brackets. Numbers in square brackets after each list indicate that team's total score. The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows:
– indicates Phill's/Daisy's/Sophie's team won.
– indicates Sean's/Bill's/the guest/Noel's team won.
Daisy May Cooper did not appear in any episode except for the Christmas special; she was replaced by Sophie Willan as team captain in five of the episodes. The other four episodes had a theme (episodes being titled Never Mind the Buzzcocks Does…), with guest captains taking Willan's place.[17][18]
^100th Episode Special. Contains specially filmed inserts with Mark, Phill, Bill and Richard Fairbrass.
^For the "Next Lines" round, Mark had Phill and Scott Mills swap places and Scott was the new team captain. After the round was over, Scott returned to and Chas Smash joined Bill's team, who had won the game.
^This episode marks the first time members of the same band, let alone members of the same family, appeared on one team.
^150th Episode Special and also Mark Lamarr's final episode
^Achieved a last-minute victory without Phill, who departed partway through "Next Lines."
^Ed Seymour, a hand-picked "lookalike" from the audience, replaced Preston for the remainder of the show after he walked out due to Amstell making references to his rise
to fame in Celebrity Big Brother and reading extracts from the biography of his then wife (Chantelle Houghton).
^For the second, third and fourth episodes of Series 21, Noel Fielding was the team captain while Bill Bailey was on tour.
^This episode featured frequent appearances from singer Andy Scott-Lee (formerly of boy band 3SL), who performed the Intros round (when teams played their 'Andy Scott-Lee card'), appeared in an Identity Parade line-up and had his new single heavily promoted by Amstell.
^As part of a jibe on the fickle nature and inflated importance of the NME's Cool List, a fictitious indie artist named 'Adam from Flipchart Hiatus' was initially introduced as Bill Bailey's second guest. Amstell then announced that Flipchart Hiatus had slipped too many places on the Cool List and so had to be replaced. Crew members then rushed on to lift Adam from his seat and replace him with Hynes.
^For this series, guest captains replaced Bill Bailey who left to pursue other projects.
^In honour of guest captain Stephen Fry, this episode had various QI-themed jokes including giving Stephen a customised buzzer, intellectual conversations over interesting facts, and ending the show with the QI theme tune.
^Due to a scandal where Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made prank phonecalls to Andrew Sachs on Russell's BBC Radio 2 show, the BBC decided to suspend the two comedians and pull all their shows pending further investigation. Even though this episode was taped before the suspension and was due to air on 30 October 2008, it was pulled as well. The episode was eventually first broadcast on 19 January 2011.
^In this episode, Simon dressed in a bunny costume to make the show more "family friendly" and keep his job at the BBC, mocking how the BBC had reacted to Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross scandal.
^During the Identity Parade, Noel swapped teams with Phill for the rest of the show in order to give him the "Jedward experience". However, host Jack Dee still credited the victory to "Noel's old team."
^Jedward temporarily swapped places with Identity Parade member Pat Sharp, who was made team captain for rest of the round.
^This episode featured a running joke that it was originally supposed to be hosted by Colombian pop-sensation Shakira.
^The episode started with Marvin Humes from JLS on Phill's team whilst the other members of the band sat on a "sub bench" to the side. Throughout the episode, whenever Tim Westwood set off an alarm, JLS had to substitute another member onto the panel.
The entire band performed with Phill in the Intros round.
^During the Intros round, Pat Sharp joined Noel's team to make up for all of JLS joining up on Phill's team.
^The game ended in a draw, so a tiebreak game of "How Many Mobys Are There?" was played.
^Frankie Boyle stood in for Phill Jupitus who was unable to attend the episode's recording
^This episode was styled as a "Radio DJs Special" and included guest appearances from Tony Blackburn, Mike Read and Pat Sharp sitting in the audience. The teams could play "Hey Mr DJ" cards throughout the show to ask them for help.
^Professor Green stood in for Noel Fielding who was unable to attend the episode's recording.
^The game ended in a draw, so a tiebreak question was asked where Ayoade described a musician and the teams had to buzz in. Crosby correctly answered Rick Astley, thus making Phill's team the winners.
^250th Episode Special; also included recurring appearances from Russell Grant throughout as part of a running joke that he had been passed over for the host's
job.
^Horne was accompanied by his band, The Horne Section, who performed throughout the show.
^The game ended in a draw, leading to a round where the teams had to name as many famous Stevens as they could.
^The first time more than one person hosted the show.
^Morgan smashed a coffee mug in the final round, apparently irritated by the hosts' jokes at his expense. He then walked off the show before the game had finished.
^Akabusi filled in for Aston Merrygold, who pulled out at the last minute due to illness. Jack Whitehall jokingly referred to him as Aston and asked him questions about JLS' split.
^The game ended in a draw, so a tiebreak question was asked where Redd Pepper described a musician and the teams had to buzz in. Willis correctly answered Justin Timberlake, thus making Phill's team the winners.
^Delayed by a week due to a double bill of Intruders.
^For the Identity Parade round for Phill's team, the drummer from Bad Manners who had been booked to appear had got the wrong day. Therefore, while Phill's team were blindfolded, Rhod had to get a band member (Ian Leigh from Dr Zero & The Hotheads) and five other people from the audience to replace the line-up.
^After Noel's team's Identity Parade, former The Clash drummer Terry Chimes joined Phill's team for the rest of the show.
^Noel was absent from this episode due to illness; Jamali served as team captain in his absence.
^ abcEpisodes seven and eight were brought forward a week due to Lady Leshurr being charged with actual bodily harm after a 22 October 2022 incident; the postponed episode was burnt off at 2:15 a.m. and is not available for streaming.