Reddit can be a bit of a wild place but sometimes there are some decent discussions. The threads below are interesting as they are stories from people that have observed or interacted, with TV people, at show recordings.

The 2023 link I found particularly interesting (you can easily lose an hour browsing it) as it covers so many British TV shows. Stories about how long recording takes, how many times lines are fluffed, who speaks to the audience.

• 2023 thread – anyone been in a TV show audience
• 2020 thread – Cats Countdown audience
• 2026 thread – TV personalities that are actually lovely

I’ve pulled out some comments and also added in some from books / interviews – that demonstrate the level of professionalism that Jimmy brings when he hosts TV shows.

THIS is why he has been repeatedly booked as a host (and also a guest) by just about every channel, for 25+ years. See the list of his TV work – here.

Words below are verbatim (so poor punctuation etc.) and may follow on from text about impressions of other comics on the show.

Note that, in the UK, audiences apply to attend recordings, via sites such as SRO Audiences. From what I understand the bookers tend to over-subscribe the recording (to make sure that they fill the studio) and I’ve seen people say to “get there early” to be at the head of the queue on the day. The audience is not paid, unlike in some other countries.

8 Out of 10 Cats

• 2011… 2.5 hours of absolute hilarity, like being with mates at the pub. Sean Lock drank like 7 or 8 bottles of beer.
• 2012 Diamond Jubilee special… although they have to reshoot a lot of things amongst *some* scripting, the show is basically just highlights from 4 hours of comedians mildly drunk on a panel bouncing jokes off each other. There’s a LOT that doesn’t make it to TV.
• Jimmy Carr can do pickup takes like an absolute machine.
• Post about Jimmy performing a joke 7 times, when the audience kept laughing over the punchline – see here.

11 O’Clock Show

This bullet follows on from some text about Charlie Brooker not acknowledging the audience.

• Carr on the other hand was brilliant. Before the taping started he was good naturedly tearing into one audience member relentlessly. At 10 secs to going live he stopped. The segment happened and we cut to adverts. Without missing a beat Carr turned straight back to the guy and carried on ripping the sh*t out of him until 10 secs before going live when he got his TV face back on. This happened for the whole show. I didn’t expect much from Brooker tbh – it’s his schtick!. But Jimmy Carr got a fan for life that night.

Your Face Or Mine

• Jimmy and Katherine were both great and interacted well with the audience. In fact I actually had more fun than I did at QI.

C4’s Alternative Election Night

This would have been the 2010 show.

• Jimmy Carr was the main host and really held the whole thing together. It was all live, with some prerecorded bits every so often. Carr was like a manager, going round to check the other presenters and guests were ok, boosting the confidence of a very nervous David Mitchell. Every so often they’d get someone in the audience to answer a question live. And then we went to break he would come back over and sincerely thank them. At the end he talked to lots of people and just seemed a good guy. Very professional and focussed on it all.

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown

• Jimmy Carr really is as….robotic as he seems, for lack of a better term? It felt like he never left character and even when the cameras were off he had one-liners going. It was a little unnerving.
• Was the best thing ever. Laughed for the 3 ish hours they filmed. At one point they stopped filming for a bit because some of the set fell from the ceiling.
• The last one I saw had Johnny Vegas on it and he got pretty drunk which led to the whole thing taking ages to film – but it was absolutely hilarious. I think they film a few episodes back-to-back and this was the last one of the day so Jimmy Carr was getting very angry as he obviously wanted to go to bed.

Re this last part about “Jimmy obviously wanted to go to bed”. I think it more likely he was wanting to get the crew and audience off at a reasonable time. He always has the option of having a car take him home but others would probably be relying on trains etc. and there’s a limit on how late public transport runs.

On these shows (where he’s the Host) he has an ear piece in and a Director was probably “in his ear” asking him to get it wrapped up.

Having written the above I then found this 2020 thread, from another Countdown show record, which supports my theory:

• The cheese and biscuits section went on the longest, about forty minutes, as the entire cast descended into conversations about cheese, doctor’s visits and haemorrhoids. It took about ten minutes for the crackers to arrive. By the end of this section, Jimmy’s earpiece was going crazy trying to get the show back on track.
• The asteroid prop was dangling from the ceiling – with no explanation – for the entire recording session. When they eventually dropped it on “Susie”, it barely hit the dummy. The earpiece asked Jimmy if they wanted to do it again, and he said “no, leave it in, it will be funny”.
• Sometimes the cast stay behind when it’s a break to engage with the audience – Jimmy in particular likes to do this and is very friendly. One time, Jimmy and Rachel were talking about Game of Thrones with the audience.

Big Fat Quiz

A friend of mine went to the BFQ Telly 2023 and said:

• I was honestly struck by how talented and resilient he is!! It was a long evening (longer for him, no doubt) and one of the contestants was a bit rogue. For him it must’ve been like herding cats. He was clearly the most talented and funny of them all, by miles.

Fin Taylor

In this post Fin Taylor appears on a podcast and mentions how professional Jimmy was, on a record of 8 out of 10 Cats (which would have been one of the shows Fin appeared on in 2019 or 2020). He told how Jimmy was “directing and producing the show through his ear” while simultaneously hosting. And a genuine, properly lovely bloke that’s “super sweet off camera”.

Susie Dent

In a 2019 interview, Susie Dent was asked in an interview what Jimmy was like OFF set. She said:

He’s hugely professional and genuinely cares that people feel at ease. If we ever get a new comedian on the show, he will go out of his way to check they felt comfortable and had a good time. Off set, he’s pretty private like me, which I respect, with lots of passions outside of work, which isn’t easy when he works as much as he does.

In another 2025 interview with Susie (relating to the infamous “gloryholes” Catsdown episode) she said:

Jimmy is lovely actually because if he has an intro he thinks that is very much on the line, he asks them to show it to me so I can veto it. I haven’t yet vetoed any. That’s just part of the comedy isn’t it. I just wish I could come up with more comebacks.”

Michael McIntyre

In Michael’s 2^nd book he talks about being nervous on his first 8oo10c appearance and how Jimmy telephoned him later that night to check in on him and reassure him. Read more here.

Katherine Ryan

To repeat something from this post about a book promotion interview Katherine did in 2021:

Everyone knows what they’re doing on Jimmy’s TV shows and they run smoothly. If they didn’t, you can bet that Jimmy would give calm, clear instructions on how to make it right. It’s so relaxing to work with a leader like that. Jimmy is a solid booking, every show, every time. He’ll be around forever because he’s undeniable. You’ve got to be undeniable. Professionally, he gives no trouble and takes no shit.

The Naked Jape

This one is slightly off topic but see also this story about a celebrity booker’s encounter with Jimmy, at a corporate event, when he had a deadline for reading proofs of The Naked Jape. Just another story of someone in the business being impressed with his professionalism.

2005, Head of C4 Entertainment

Even back in 2005 Jimmy was recognised, as a great host. The quote below (from this article) is from the then head of C4 Entertainment:

“Jimmy is just a very, very good host: he’s generous with guests, and brilliant at delivering jokes. But he’s also an excellent writer. He delivers funny material effortlessly, and at a rate of knots. When he’s presenting for us, he’ll be reading off an autocue, but he’s normally written plenty of stuff on that autocue.”

“He obviously looks good on telly as well, and his last show, 8 out of 10 Cats, was the most successful new comedy show we’ve had in ages. It had five million viewers by the end of the series; we’ll certainly be seeing a lot of him on Channel 4 in the future.”