Eggheads fan favourite quizzer to return for milestone 2,000th episode

‘It’s wonderful to have her back,’ co-star said

Eggheads fans will be excited to see one of the original stars return for the 2,000th episode.

The long-running quiz show, which began in 2003, is set to broadcast its milestone episode on Wednesday (22 March).

Eggheads started on BBC Two in 2003, before moving to Channel 5 in 2021 with host Jeremy Vine, who has hosted since 2008. More than 70,000 questions have been asked across the past 24 series.

The show sees a team of contestants pitted against specialist quizzers, who are general knowledge experts.

Fan-favourite star Judith Keppel left the series in 2022 after 19 years on the panel.

However, the 80-year-old will return for the anniversary episode, telling PA: “It’s amazing. It’s lovely to be able to be doing that. Eggheads obviously has been a great success over the years because we’ve gone on such a long time.”

She said of the show’s success: “I think people love bringing teams. What Eggheads has become is what I call wallpaper TV. Students have their TV on all the time, so they see Eggheads and then they bring a team because they think it’d be a laugh.

“And then we have families who come on, and we have pub teams, because they always have quiz teams, and work teams and also charity teams.

Keppel continued: “All sorts of people seem to enjoy bringing teams and participating. I think that’s the secret to it really. It’s not University Challenge, which absolutely bamboozles most people – it’s possible to beat us.”

Chris Hughes, who was one of Keppel’s original quizzing co-stars, said it was “wonderful’ to “have her back on the team”.

Judith Keppel is returning to ‘Eggheads’ for mileston episode (Steve Meddle/Shutterstock)

Kevin Ashman said that an executive producer downplayed Eggheads when they first filmed it, telling the panellists: “We just see this as a nice afternoon show that will run for a couple of series.”

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

But the show exceeded expectations, and swiftly became a huge success.

Vine said he was ‘chuffed” about the milestone, stating: “I get a lot of people say they’ve been watching it since the very start for nearly 20 years. It’s such a big part of my life, I love it so much.”

He added: “When you’re part of something on TV that’s been there a long time, that’s consistent, it is incredibly precious.”

Eggheads airs weekdays at 6.30pm on Channel 5.