UKTV’s Dave channel has handed out a second season renewal to Hypothetical. The comedy series fronted by Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster will return with a further eight episodes in 2020.
The formal green-light for season two comes after the show’s first season, which aired on Dave earlier this year, reached a total audience of 4.5 million viewers. It was also one of UKTV Play’s most popular shows of 2019.
Hypothetical asks the questions that no one else has asked, and no one knows how to answer. Josh poses the tricky hypotheticals to a panel of four comic guests, and James dishes out the points on a seemingly random basis. The series is produced by Hat Trick Productions, with Sophie Le Good serving as the series producer. The executive producers are Joe McVey and Stu Mather.
“I am absolutely delighted Dave have turned the hypothetical Hypothetical second series into a reality. I know no one outside of the industry really reads these quotes so I would like to take this chance to say the success of the show is all down to the team’s hard work and late nights”, Josh Widdicombe said in a statement. “Now that’s done I look forward to James and I publicly taking all the credit for the show when it comes out.”
“The second series of Hypothetical is going to be bigger, braver and more hypotheticaler than before! Widdicombe called me up and told me to suit up in my finest corduroys because it’s time to ask the questions most folk are too scared to ask to the people most folk are too scared to gaze upon”, commented James Acaster. “I’ve been wearing the big hat and the small hat on alternate days in preparation. I’ve got a pocketful of points and I’m keen to dish them out! They’re weighing me down! I’m lugging these points around everywhere with me and I need to lighten the load! I’ll give them to whoever I can! As long as they give me a satisfying answer to a hypothetical question.”
While Dave Channel Director Luke Hales, who ordered the second season alongside UKTV’s Director of Commissioning Richard Watsham and UKTV Commissioning Editor Joe McVey, added: “We are so pleased to be bringing Hypothetical back for another hilarious series, not only because it was a massive success for us but on a personal level, as a viewer it is one of my favourite things on TV. The comedians genuinely have zero prep time and having to improvise on the spot makes for some of the funniest moments I have seen on telly in years. On Dave we are committed to working with the best comic talent and making the funniest and most original comedy on British TV and this really does deliver on all of those fronts.”
