Have I Got News for You further mockery, Deayton was fired in October, two shows into series 24. At short notice, Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, and was described as "merciless" in his treatment of his former co-star. A series of guest hosts appeared for the remainder of the series, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Despite an initial search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful, with average audience figures increasing from 6 million to 7 million. It was therefore announced in June 2003 that this feature would continue permanently. Hislop is
Have I Got News for You first time the honour had been bestowed upon a collective instead of an individual or double act. In 2016 they also received a BAFTA in the Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme category. For its first 10 years, the programme was shown on BBC Two. In 2000, the BBC moved its nightly BBC One news bulletin, the "BBC Nine O'Clock News", from nine o'clock to ten o'clock (now known as the "BBC News at Ten") after ITV moved their long-running ten o'clock bulletin, "News at Ten", to eleven o'clock. This left a gap in the schedules, and "Have I Got News