Jason Manford

Though the prospect of Jason Manford hosting an X Factor-style competition for 10 amateur standups sounds more like Saturday night light entertainment, this turns out to be a meatier proposition, not least because watching people cold-sweat their way through a sudden attack of the unfunnies makes for painfully gripping television. Alan Davies and Kate Copstick are the fairly devastating judges; now that The Apprentice is over, get your fix of schadenfreude here.

For better or worse, the comedy circuit gets its own X Factor - but the contestants who will be battling it out by gigging their way round the country have already been whittled down to ten. They include experienced hands such as Patrick Monahan and people who have never had a paid gig. The winner gets £100,000, a multi-date tour and their very own Christmas DVD. Cheeky QI chappy Alan Davies is a judge, while jovial Jason Manford, presumably hoping for a big-league bounce-back after his short-lived stint on The One Show and that 'sexting' to-do, hosts.

Here's a show to cheer up anyone feeling bereft after waving farewell to Lord Sugar and his swaggering apprentices. For this series promises to be every bit as amusing and nail-bitingly compulsive, with the added bonus of a few decent jokes. Most of those are courtesy of host Jason Manford, who puts ten fledgeling stand-ups through their paces in an attempt to find the next Michael McIntyre. Each week the hopefuls will perform new material for a tricky audience, including hospital patients, secondary school pupils, tipsy Welsh rugby players and a squadron of Scots Guards. Tonight they face a roomful of Liverpudlian ladies. Cue lamentable gags about scousers and even dodgier impersonations that soon have judges Alan Davies and crimson-lipped critic Kate Copstick - who clearly intends to be the Cowell of comedy - wincing. Even tonight's guest judge, jolly Jimmy Tarbuck, can't crack a smile. Fortunately, if there's one thing more entertaining than first-rate stand-up, it's watching wannabes bomb. There's no need for Michael McIntyre to watch his back just yet.

Jason Manford: TV heaven & hell interview

We fired some quick Qs at Jason Manford earlier this year to find out his ideas on TV heaven and TV hell...

ITV's new stand-up comedy competition Show Me The Funny is quite an odd beast. The idea of having comedians compete X Factor style is fair enough - and has been done before - but this Jason Manford-fronted show also involves the contestants doing tasks...

Manford: "I'm going to split you into pairs, and send you off with a list of things to find and people to see." What?! "And whoever wins will get to determine the running order for this big gig." Oh, I see! No, still what?! Bizarre. The notion is that helping out at a hair salon or setting up a blind date will help the comics get to know the people of the town they're gigging in, and in turn help them write some new material. We'll skip over the fact that lots of decent comedians actively avoid doing "town-specific" stuff as it's kinda cliche...

The tasks take up half of the programme, meaning Show Me The Funny is, in fact, what you find yourself shouting at the screen. There are certainly talented comedians involved - I've seen a couple of them live, and Stuart Goldsmith in particular is brilliant - but you don't get to see enough of their acts to make up your own mind.

Manford: I'd tell jokes if comic was in a sex scandal

Jason Manford has admitted he would have been the first to crack jokes if it had been another comedian caught up in his Twitter hotel sex shame.

Pretty soon, it seems, the only primetime programmes on ITV1 will be talent shows, celebrity challenges and soaps, with occasional dramas and news bulletins grudgingly thrown in to keep the regulators happy. This latest X Factor wannabe focuses on comedy, with host Jason Manford - no mean comedian himself - going out on the road with a gaggle (or should that be a giggle?) of ambitious stand-ups who feel certain they could be the next big thing in British comedy. From fresh-faced newbies to never-quite-made-it pros, the top 10 contestants have their ability to get audiences rolling in the aisles put to the test over six weeks, in which they tour the country to perform for a variety of tough crowds (hospital patients, squaddies, secondary school pupils and rugby players, among others). They'll also take on a range of other mirth-inducing challenges, each episode culminating with the judges - regulars Alan Davies and comedy critic Kate Copstick, plus guests including such well-known comics as Jo Brand, Johnny Vegas and Ross Noble - deciding who's made the cut. The final is a live show at the Hammersmith Apollo for a prize that's certainly not to be laughed at: £100,000 cash, a nationwide tour and a DVD.

Tonight, the contestants are in Liverpool, where they'll perform a gig in front of an all-female audience; the guest judge is Liverpudlian Jimmy Tarbuck.

Jason Manford: I thought about retraining as plasterer

Life as a comedian isn't always a barrel of laughs. Jason Manford, the stand-up who became a presenter, says he nearly packed it all in after his One Show debacle.

Jason Manford to display his talent for singing

Comedy star Jason Manford is aiming to get revellers in Manchester smiling - by showing off his hidden talent for singing.

This now long-running Channel 4 panel game has seen some changes over the years. In this series, Jon Richardson has replaced Jason Manford as team captain; the opening round, "What Are You Talking About?", also now only covers the top three most talked about things in Britain as opposed to the original five. The other major change is that the total scores are no longer mentioned, with host Jimmy Carr now simply saying who's won, rather like Mock the Week.

The one major problem I have with 8 Out of 10 Cats is that almost every time there is always one guest who you'd rather not have on the programme. I went through the panel before the show began thinking to myself: "Russell Kane - established, award winning comic and deserves to be on. Josh Widdicombe - a relatively unknown comic who can use this appearance as his big break. Rachel Riley - well, as someone who regularly co-presents Countdown she has experience of quiz formats. Alex Reid - oh, damn!"

However, having said that, I did enjoy the fact that Reid didn't take himself too seriously, taking part in some pretty self-deprecating humour. However, the guest comics, as to be expected, did perform better; Kane's story about a woman he accidentally offended on a train was a particular highlight.