The Hit List is a British musicgame show that puts three pairs of contestants against each other to test their knowledge of music, which began airing on Saturday nights on BBC One on 25 May 2019. The show is hosted by husband and wifeMarvin and Rochelle Humes, and it is their first stand alone TV show as a couple. The format was created for Tuesday’s Child by television producer Jamie Ormerod. A trailer for the show was released on BBC Trailers' YouTube Channel on 13 May 2019 and Marvin also shared a short behind-the-scenes video on his Facebook profile on 21 May 2019. They also appeared on The One Show and This Morning to promote the show.
Filming
A pilot of the format was made at Dock10 studios in Manchester in 2018 under the name PlayListers, also hosted by the married couple. Filming for the debut series took place at the BBC Scotland studios on 9 and 10 March 2019. On 8 August 2019, BBC One announced that a second series had been commissioned. The BBC commissioned the show for a third series set to air later in 2020.
Format
Across three rounds, the contestants attempt to identify huge hits from across the years. The teams must prove their ability to recognise songs from all genres of music for a chance to win £10,000.
Round one – The teams are played a selection of clips from hit tracks and must press their buzzer whenever they recognise a song. All the songs in this round are themed, so the contestants might need to identify two songs written by the same songwriter, or recall what song was at number two in the charts when another was at number one. The teams must rely on their music memory to answer quickly enough. The first two teams to give five correct answers progress through to round two.
Round two – The two remaining teams must identify a range of song titles and artists by listening to the very beginning of the songs and recognising them before the time runs out. The teams are given visual clues to help them, such as a map showing where the singer is originally from, or an image of a famous person who is mentioned in the song lyrics. Each team must work against the clock to ensure their time doesn’t run out. The first team to run out of time will be eliminated.
Round three – The Final Chart Rundown – This round sees the final team attempting to recognise ten songs and artists before the money runs out. The team will start the round with £10,000 available in their pot of money, but after five seconds of each track that is played, the money starts to drop. If the team can correctly name ten song titles and artists before the money disappears, they will go home with whatever is left in the pot.
