qi

[imajenarry]

i love QI and watch every week and every week i wonder why alan davies is the only permanent guest on the programme when everyone else just does one or two in the series.seems a bit odd.does anyone know ?

[Robinia]

It's just to add variety to the programme & I suppose some of them aren't available for the whole series.
I love it too & as Alan is one of my favourite people I'm glad he's on every week. In fact it wouldn't be the same without him at all.....but I do also like the fact that the others change, some are funnier than others.

[Llamatron]

I think Sean Lock is the funniest guest.

Jo Brand is the worst. She's next to useless on Mock the Week as well.
.

[zipadeedodah]

Totally agree with Llamatron. I really like Sean Lock, both on QI and others (8 out of 10 Cats etc). I also think Jo Brand is bad on all of them!

I'd pick Alan Davies, Sean Lock, the little bald guy (Andy I think) and Bill Bailey as my personal funniest line up.

[198x]

I think it's just to show that Alan has a mind similar to the majority of people, as in he'll guess the most obvious answer which will ultimately be wrong.

I like that he's always on, as 9 times out of 10 he'll have a minus score. Also if he wasn't on it, who would Stephen Fry have to pick on?

[Ethel]

Love Alan Davies, loathe Jo Brand.

[Athley]

Alan Davies is on every week because clearly Stephen Fry is in love with him

[vehelpfulguy]

I found out the answer. I heard an interview with the producer recently and he said as follows.

The original plan was to have Micheal Palin as the host, and two teams - a "clever" team and a "dim" team.

Alan Davies was going to be team captain of the "dim" team and Stephen Fry team captain of the "clever" team.

But Palin did not want to do it.

When time came to film the pilot they put Stephen Fry in the hosts chair till they found a "proper" host.

He was so good he kept the job, and they just never bothered to get a team captain for the other team.

http://www.qi.com/

[imajenarry]

ah thanks vehelpfulguy-it all makes sense now. i'm surprised the producers didn't try to get a 2nd team captain. sure they would've had some takers-seems pretty entertaining way to earn money.