Katherine Ryan to host Top Trumps comedy show in TLC push
Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland is adding a Top Trumps panel show, more Mock the Week and a second run of Unacceptable to TLC.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Katherine Ryan is taking Top Trumps from the card pile to the comedy panel desk.
Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland has ordered a U.K. TLC panel show based on the well-known card game, with Ryan set to host. The working title is Top Trumps: The Comedy Pack, and the series is planned to launch early next year, according to the company’s slate announcement reported by Variety.
The format puts Ryan in charge while Joel Dommett and Jon Richardson serve as rival team captains. The show will use card-style matchups, studio challenges and bluffing rounds, with TalkbackThames producing alongside Naked.
Ryan said in the announcement that the series would take the familiar game and scale it up for television, with Dommett and Richardson’s competing teams adding to the mayhem. The show joins a growing comedy lineup at TLC, which Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland relaunched at the start of the year as a free-to-air broad entertainment channel.
Mock the Week gets a longer run
The biggest return on the slate is Mock the Week. Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland has ordered three more seasons of the panel show, taking it through Season 5 in 2027.
The series, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and produced by Angst Productions, came back on TLC earlier this year after going on hiatus in 2022 following a two-decade run at the BBC. TLC has already aired its first revived season and a summer special, while Season 2 is scheduled for Sept. 13.
Graham Lafferty, Warner Bros. Discovery’s senior vice president for content strategy and networks in the U.K. and Ireland, said the company was pleased to secure three further series of Mock the Week, with Ó Briain continuing to guide the show through the news cycle into 2027.
Unacceptable also returns
TLC is also bringing back Unacceptable, the Ed Gamble-hosted format that launched last month. Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland said the show has already been renewed for a second season.
Lafferty described Ryan as a strong fit for the channel, noting her previous appearances on both Mock the Week and Unacceptable. He also pointed to Dommett and Richardson as the comedy pairing at the center of the Top Trumps format.
The comedy push is not the only programming move from Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland. The company is also adding to its motoring output, with The Race Mechanic, Richard Hammond’s Workshop and Wheeler Dealers World Tour among the titles headed to TLC’s sister channel Quest.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.