A new TV show based on the children’s party game musical chairs is set to hit screens, tapping into viewers’ cravings for nostalgia and happy childhood memories.
The company behind Big Brother, Masterchef and Peaky Blinders is launching the elimination gameshow Game of Chairs – a series in which 10 contestants move around a circle of nine coloured chairs and aim to land on a seat when the music stops.
But in a twist on the traditional party game, the person left without a place can oust one of the seated players by competing in a challenge against them, with the winner taking money hidden in the seats’ cushions and the loser leaving the show.
Game of Chairs is the latest in a TV trend for “cosy content” that harks back to simple childhood games: The Traitors has elements of murder in the dark; Celebrity Bear Hunt is a kind of hide and seek; and new UKTV series Silence Is Golden, in which comedians try to make people laugh, is reminiscent of the quiet game sleeping lions.
Game of Chairs is being made by Banijay – the world’s largest independent TV production company. Its development chief, James Townley, said the idea came about after the organisation’s Spanish and Portuguese arm, Shine Iberia, discovered that almost every country plays musical chairs, realising it had global appeal.
Townley said it chimed with the current times because nostalgia was popular “with the way the world is at the moment”, so audiences wanted escapism. Musical chairs fitted the bill as it “conjures up memories, probably, of a time that they were incredibly happy”.
He said: “Kids and adults love it. It seems to put smiles on people’s faces the moment you talk about it, because it’s something most people have played or their kids are now playing.”
Shine Iberia spent a year refining and supersizing the game for TV while keeping it true to the simplicity of the original. Tweaks include illuminated chairs and a “master chair” grand final prize.
Townley said the music played during the game was an opportunity for more nostalgia, although it could provide a platform for new artists too.
He said that in the current climate, it was not a surprise that nostalgic games owned by manufacturers such as Hasbro and Mattel and childhood pursuits were being discussed. In addition to Game of Chairs, Banijay has a new Channel 4 series about knitting presented by Tom Daley called The Game of Wool, while the BBC will have Chess Masters, fronted by Sue Perkins.
Townley said that if a show had a universal theme or played into nostalgia it really helped it reach audiences, because viewers immediately recognised it, and global streamers such as Netflix and Amazon wanted shows that “travel around the world”.
So much so, he said, that Banijay was developing a top-secret show “based on a very famous childhood game”.
With the current appetite for reboots – they make up almost 10% of new entertainment and gameshows, with revivals including Gladiators and Bullseye, plus Banijay’s new version of Bergerac on UKTV and 2000s series Faking It for Channel 5 – some critics have questioned whether TV has run out of new ideas.
Townley said creating new programmes was difficult in a risk-averse market. He said reboot was “not a dirty word” as it took lots of creative renewal to update old series for current audiences and Banijay was actively discussing bringing back three or four more.
Game of Chairs will be shown first in Europe, before rolling out on TV channels around the world.
• This article was amended on 3 March 2025. The new series of Faking It will be broadcast on Channel 5, not Channel 4.
