The 11 O'Clock Show

The 11 O'Clock Show was a satirical late-night British television comedy series on Channel 4 which featured topical sketches and commentary on news items.^[1] It ran between 30 September 1998 and 8 December 2000, most notably hosted by Iain Lee and Daisy Donovan.^[2] The show boosted the careers of the previously little-known Ricky Gervais, Sacha Baron Cohen (in character as Ali G), Jimmy Carr, and Mackenzie Crook.^[3]

The 11 O'Clock Show
Genre	Satire Comedy
Presented by	Brendon Burns (series 1) Fred MacAulay (series 1) Iain Lee (series 1–4) Daisy Donovan (series 2–4) Jon Holmes (series 5) Sarah Alexander (series 5)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	144
Production
Running time	30–35 minutes
Production company	Talkback
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	30 September 1998 (1998-09-30) – 8 December 2000 (2000-12-08)
Related
Da Ali G Show

Hosts and presenters

The 11 O'Clock Show underwent a number of line-up changes during its run. There are numerous cases of external-segment reporters becoming studio hosts, and vice versa. Notable presenters and cast members included:

• Iain Lee^[4]
• Daisy Donovan^[2]
• Mackenzie Crook^[5]
• Paul Garner^[6]
• Sacha Baron Cohen (in character as Ali G)^[7][8]
• Ricky Gervais^[9]
• Fred MacAulay^[10]
• Brendon Burns^[10]
• Sarah Alexander^[11]
• Jon Holmes^[12]
• Rich Hall^[13]
• Alex Lowe^[14]
• Will Smith
• Tommy Vance^[15]
• Ricky Grover^[16]
• Danny Bhoy
• Marc Wootton
• Jason Priestley
• Jimmy Carr^[17]

Controversy

In January 2000, the show came under criticism from the Broadcasting Standards Commission following viewer complaints about comments made on the show about recently deceased TV presenter Jill Dando, songwriter Bobby Willis (the husband of entertainer Cilla Black) and golfer Payne Stewart.^[18]