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8 Out of 10 Cats

British television comedy panel game

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ2144186 ↗
Source-derived summary

8 Out of 10 Cats (stylised as 8 out of 10 CATS) is a British comedy panel show that aired from 3 June 2005 to 17 January 2021. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2015, then More4 from 2016 to 2017, and finally E4 from 2017 to 2021. The show was hosted by Jimmy Carr and featured regular team captains Sean Lock, Dave Spikey, Jason Manford, Jon Richardson, Rob Beckett, Aisling Bea and Katherine Ryan.

The show was based on statistics and opinion polls and draws on polls produced by a variety of organisations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by The Harris Poll.

The title was derived from an old popular misquoting of a well-known advertising tagline for Whiskas cat food, which claimed that "8 out of 10 owners (later advertisements adding "who expressed a preference") said their cats prefer it". (The misquoting may be due to the fact that Whiskas actually trademarked the phrase "8 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas", even though it was never used that way in the advertisements.)

Past episodes air across the Channel 4 network of channels, including More4 and E4 Extra, and past episodes are also repeated on U&Dave and Comedy Central. As of present, there has been no announcement from Channel 4 about commissioning a new series of the show.

Overview

The show was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr and featured two teams consisting of a regular team captain and two celebrity guests each. Sean Lock appeared as a team captain from series 1 to 18. He was replaced by Rob Beckett at the beginning of series 19.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “8 Out of 10 Cats” is british television comedy panel game. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cats, British and television, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2021, 2015, 2016—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Cats, British and television is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british television comedy panel game” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2144186. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2021, 2015 and 2016.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “8 Out of 10 Cats”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 8 Out of 10 Cats primary sources, 8 Out of 10 Cats archive and Cats research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “8 Out of 10 Cats”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “8 Out of 10 Cats” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.