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40 free Richard Osman's House of Games trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Every weekday teatime four celebrities sit in a row, a round generator spins, and a quiz that is really a word game in disguise begins. Nine series in, the BBC show has its own language: a pairs round picked by whoever is losing, tablet games that punish a shaky finger, a trolley of logo-stamped tat nobody needs and everybody wants, and a closing round where a wrong buzz actually costs you. These 40 questions are about the programme itself rather than a set of its puzzles. They cover how the rounds work and when each one first appeared, the points and the weekly cup, the returning-champion and second-chance weeks, the primetime spin-off, the records set by the best and worst panellists, the buildings it has called home, and the presenter who built it, met his wife on it, and handed over the keys in 2026. Play it if you can name the round from three words of its rules, hand it to the person who shouts at the screen at six o'clock, or print it for a quiz night of your own.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which round ends every House of Games episode and is the only one where a wrong buzz costs a point?
Answer Smash
Answer Smash fuses the name of a pictured thing with a general-knowledge answer, so Mr. Stink plus Tinky Winky becomes Mr. Stinky Winky.
Q 02Which three features of Richard Osman make up the turquoise House of Games logo stamped on every daily prize?
Hair, eyebrows and glasses
Hair, eyebrows and glasses are all it takes to make Osman recognisable, and the same silhouette sits on the weekly trophy cup he hands over on Fridays.
Q 03How long does the House of Games crew take to record a full week of five episodes?
One day
One day is all it takes: the five shows are taped back to back and the celebrities change outfits between episodes so each looks like a fresh day.
Q 04Which teatime quiz did Osman create and co-present for 1,300 episodes before leaving it in 2022?
Pointless
Pointless was Osman's own pitch to the BBC, and he became its co-host only because he played the assistant in the demonstration.
Q 05Which Welsh actor was announced in 2026 as Osman's successor, promising to 'see my silhouette on a fondue set'?
Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen takes the House of Games keys in his first job as a quiz host, recording 100 episodes for broadcast in late 2026.
Q 06On which day of the week does House of Games double its leaderboard points, making the final episode decisive?
Friday
Friday is Double Points Friday, when a daily win pays eight leaderboard points instead of the usual haul and a trailing player can still snatch the week.
Q 07How did early series of House of Games settle two players tied for first place at the end of the week?
Both declared joint winners
Both declared joint winners, with a cup apiece, was the original rule; more recent weeks settle a tie with a single tie-break question on the buzzer.
Q 08What kind of prize does each daily House of Games winner pick from the trolley Osman wheels out?
A branded everyday object
A branded everyday object is all that is on offer, from a dartboard to a fondue set, each stamped with the turquoise House of Games logo.
Q 09Which long-running BBC Two teatime quiz's 6pm slot did House of Games effectively take over from 2017?
Eggheads
Eggheads had owned the 6pm slot for years, and House of Games slid into it for twenty-week runs each autumn and winter.
Q 10Which actress met Richard Osman as a House of Games contestant and married him in December 2022?
Ingrid Oliver
Ingrid Oliver later needed BBC board clearance to play a Champions week, granted because the prizes were judged 'so insignificant'.
Q 11Which buzzer round usually opens a House of Games week to ease the panel in, and featured in the 2017 debut episode?
Rhyme Time
Rhyme Time eases panellists in on Mondays, and some clues swap a statement for a picture or a song whose title is the rhyming answer.
Q 12Which pairs round, usually Monday's second game, turns two teammates' tablet numbers into a single team answer?
Distinctly Average
Distinctly Average is typically Monday's second round, and its name is the joke: one wild guess from a partner drags the pair's average off target.
Q 13Which House of Games tablet round hands each player a map and a point to the contestant whose pin lands closest?
Where Is Kazakhstan?
Q 21Which House of Games round makes players drop a set word from every answer, so Hammersmith becomes 'mersmith'?
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room has run since series two, alongside Games House Of, where answers must be given with their words in alphabetical order.
Q 22Which House of Games round builds up a viewer-survey word cloud and is named after Osman's other quiz?
Well Done If You Said That at Home
Well Done If You Said That at Home is a nod to Osman's survey-driven teatime quiz, and the cloud comes from viewers asked for three words they associate with a title.
Q 23Who chooses the partnerships for the House of Games pairs round that is always played second each day?
Where Is Kazakhstan? arrived within the show's first week and is one of the games skipped for players who cannot manage the tablets' fine controls.
Q 14Which House of Games individual round hides its solution as an anagram of the capitalised words inside the clue?
The Answer's in the Question
The Answer's in the Question dates from episode five, while its cousin Hidden in Plain Sight spells the solution in consecutive letters rather than scrambling them.
Q 15Which House of Games round shows only a lyric's first letters, in rhythm with the tune, to name the song?
Broken Karaoke
Broken Karaoke left regular play in series five but survives in the Festive editions, and since series two the title's initials appear if nobody has buzzed.
Q 16Which House of Games round asks two clues with one answer, paying double if you buzz on the harder clue?
Highbrow Lowbrow
Highbrow Lowbrow opens the easier clue to the other three buzzers if a player fails it, so gambling on the hard clue can hand rivals a point.
Q 17Which House of Games pairs round gives an equation like ? × ? = 18 and four numeric questions to complete it?
Dim Sums
Dim Sums bowed out in series three after debuting in the fourth episode, and the pair score only if their chosen pair of numbers makes the sum work.
Q 18Which House of Games game has three players write one-word clues for a rival, who rewards the most helpful?
The Nice Round
The Nice Round has a vindictive twin, The (Not Quite So) Nice Round, played once in series three, where the guesser docks a point for the worst clue.
Q 19Which House of Games round, its own name letter-swapped, wants two answers that are spoonerisms of each other?
Roonerspisms
Roonerspisms pairs answers such as Catflap and Flat cap, and the round was retired from the rotation in series five.
Q 20Which House of Games game delivers its questions word-for-word in reverse and expects replies like 'Jerry and Tom'?
The Backwards Round
The Backwards Round even plays some songs in reverse, with Osman asking 'Song this of title the is what?'
The player in last place
The player in last place after round one picks a partner, and when several are tied at the bottom Osman simply chooses at random.
Q 24From which series did House of Champions weeks bring past House of Games winners back to fight for a gold trophy?
Third
The third series introduced House of Champions, whose daily prizes are gold rather than turquoise and whose winner lifts the Gold Champions Trophy.
Q 25What name did Osman improvise seconds into its first episode for House of Games editions of returning non-winners?
Redemption Week
Redemption Week replaced the planned 'second place, second chance' branding, which Osman abandoned mid-episode and never mentioned again.
Q 26Which House of Games daily prize became a Covid-era running joke for supposedly doubling as hand sanitiser?
Shampoo
Shampoo was the pandemic punchline on the prize trolley, and the joke still never persuaded a single winner to take it home.
Q 27Which comedian won the very first week of House of Games in 2017, beating Anneka Rice, Clara Amfo and Al Murray?
Nish Kumar
Nish Kumar took the first trophy in a week cast as two men and two women, a balance the show has booked every week since.
Q 28On which channel did the 2020 spin-off House of Games Night air weekly in primetime, away from the teatime original?
BBC One
BBC One carried the five-episode spin-off from 20 November 2020; a six-episode second run followed before the format was dropped in 2022.
Q 29Which Irish comedian, a series-two House of Games panellist, returned to lead House of Games Night's house band?
David O'Doherty
David O'Doherty sang original 'historical blues' songs in that series, stopping just before the lyric that named the event the player had to guess.
Q 30Which former co-host of Osman's voiced a smart-speaker-style assistant reading true-or-false statements in series four?
Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Armstrong appeared as an Amazon Echo-style device in 'Hey, Alexander!', a pun on wake words and on his narration of Hey Duggee.