Challenge

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For other uses, see Challenge (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox TV channel Challenge is a British digital TV channel owned by Flextech. Originally starting out as 'The Family Channel', and later 'Challenge TV', it has historically shown various game shows taken from a variety of sources, including some they made themselves, and the majority of its programmes are still in this genre. Challenge also has interactive features for certain shows of some digital platforms. This enables viewers to "play-along" at home. It is the closest British equivalent of the American Game Show Network (latterly GSN).

In recent times Challenge, like GSN in the United States, has begun to move away from showing repeats of game shows and has introduced reality and casino-based programmes. This has attracted some criticism to the channel but in return has attracted a whole new audience.

The channel receives many of its gameshows (excluding the Player programmes) from ITV although it also has some from Channel 5 (like Fort Boyard) and Central (Bullseye) although this channel is now under ITV control, it was a separate channel at the time.

In late 2004 Challenge introduced the 'Gameshow Gods' slot during weekday evenings, where two classic game shows hosted by legendary gameshow presenters such as Bob Monkhouse, Bruce Forsyth and Ted Rogers were shown each night. They would then be replaced with another two game shows the following month. This reintroduced many game show favourites from years gone by.

In the summer of 2005 Challenge introduced 'Old-School Saturdays' featuring popular Saturday evening programmes from the past.

Image:Player logo 2.JPG Image:Player logo 3.PNG

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Player

On the 2 March 2006, Challenge launched a new channel called Player. Previously they aired a late night block under the Player name (featuring gambling programmes such as Celebrity Poker Club, Casino Casino and the World Poker Tour), which has been a great success. The new full-time Player channel uses the same ident as the current Player strand but in a different colour (from red to yellow).

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