Claire Hooper’s House of Games review: can this charming half hour win over ABC audiences?

Before reviewing House of Games, let’s look at a little bit of TV history: when the ABC axed long-running current affairs chat show The Drum at the end of 2023, fans of hard-hitting political discussion were swiftly dealt a second blow when its replacement – repeats of the Tom Gleeson quiz show Hard Quiz – outrated it leading into the ABC news.

Now the ABC have finally stepped up with an all-new show in the 6.30pm timeslot, and the stakes are surprisingly high. Can fresh programming still bring in viewers, or should the ABC just give up and become an all Hard Quiz network?

Watch the trailer for Claire Hooper’s House of Games below:

Enter: Claire Hooper’s House of Games

The premise of Claire Hooper’s House of Games seems perfect for a light and breezy lead-in to the news. No surprise there, as it’s based on the successful UK series Richard Osman’s House of Games. Each night for a week four celebrities (well, the kind of celebrities who appear on ABC game shows) play a series of games, sometimes as individuals, sometimes in pairs.

We’re talking puzzles, general knowledge, being quick on the buzzer, having to say silly things before you answer – there’s a fair bit of variety here for a half hour quiz show.

It is, and this cannot be stressed firmly enough, astoundingly low stakes. Even compared to something supposedly lightweight like Hard Quiz, this seems like just a bunch of moderately friendly people messing around. There’s enough to the quizzes for the viewers at home to play along – an essential ingredient of any quiz show – but the competitions are complicated enough to ensure that simply being the smartest isn’t going to be enough to ensure victory.

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The house of Hooper

Hooper hasn’t always stood out in her previous television work but here she’s an assured and likable host, effortlessly explaining the games (which is a big part of the show when the games are as complex as these can be – more than once she says words to the effect of ‘you’ll figure it out’) while also managing to toss in a few good jokes. She’s perfectly in tune with this show’s easy going vibe, and she’s a big part of why it works.

The other part is the games themselves. Episodes typically start off with a fairly straightforward run of general knowledge questions before veering into the more complicated. Having to say a phrase before and after your answer? Got to figure out a mashed-together answer from two seemingly unrelated topics? And that’s just for starters.

Guest-wise, week one’s episodes feature Zan Rowe, footy player turned ABC broadcaster Bob Murphy, and comedians Peter Helliar and Geraldine Hickey. They’re all known quantities, and the format keeps them on a relatively tight leash – they’re providing the occasional quip, not lengthy performances.

Future guests include a few slightly more offbeat seat-warmers, including Rhys Nicholson, Benjamin Law, Costa Georgiadis, Eddie Perfect and Bianca Chatfield (amongst others), so it’s not just a steady stream of ABC regulars.

It’s an article of faith that celebrity game shows must have insignificant prizes: getting their faces on television is reward enough. Such is the case here, with nightly prizes from a junk shop and the weekly winner receiving a stock standard trophy. But having prizes is a reminder that there needs to be something at stake somewhere for a quiz show to work. If they’re not facing off for high stakes winnings, what are we watching for?

House v Hard

On a more comedic game show like Have You Been Paying Attention? or Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, the reward for the home viewer is (hopefully) comedy. With something like Hard Quiz, getting to gawp at a collection of sometimes pretty out-there contestants is a big part of the draw. And on those increasingly old-fashioned traditional quiz shows, actually getting to test your knowledge was something that kept people coming back.

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For all its low-key charm and warmth, in its early weeks Claire Hooper’s House of Games lacks the spark that turns a quiz show into a must see. Everything about it is good, but nothing (aside from maybe Hooper herself) is great. Maybe that’s asking too much for a lightweight local product designed to gently guide viewers towards the 7pm news.

But the ABC just doesn’t make enough light entertainment for any of it to be quite this disposable – not when repeats of Hard Quiz are never far away.

Claire Hooper’s House of Games airs five nights a week at 6.30pm on the ABC and ABC iView.