Victoria Coren Mitchell

Charlie Brooker sets out to expose, wallow in, and reward failure. Panellists David Mitchell, Victoria Coren and Rufus Hound are invited to share their wretched holiday experiences and write the opening line for a sci-fi novel, among other things. Let us hope that no one from BBC3 was listening to their pitches for the worst reality show they can imagine: Mitchell's spin on Brewster's Millions, in which contestants must deliberately lose all their friends, sounds like it's got legs.

The televised election debates kick off tonight on ITV1, however a more important debate occurs straight afterwards on Channel 4, as Charlie Brooker returns with a new series of telly debate/quiz show You Have Been Watching.

The first series was a bit patchy, with its success depending on the balance of both guests and clips. The quiz element didn't really work, except in the week Victoria Coren was on and got uber-competitive, although this element remains in the second series. Expect discussion over the course of the series to involve the televised political debates, Doctor Who, Ashes to Ashes, Britain's Got Talent and the best of international telly. Oh, and Lord Charlton has a horrible new haircut, but hopefully that won't stick around.

New BBC2 topical quiz The Bubble contained jokes about everything from Mossad hit squads to the BBC's refusal to allow its own news teams to film fake reports. But Victoria Coren caused the greatest stir for her dismissive comments about Mumsnet. A resulting wave of criticism on Twitter led her to break cover and post a lengthy defence on the forum itself.

"It's a scary to be there alongside professional comedians - sometimes the obvious is all that comes to mind," she pleaded, before begging: "Don't be cross with me for scratching grumpily at the window."

A topical news quiz on Friday night in which a witty panel are quizzed about the week's events. Hang on, haven't we seen this before? For the past 20 years?

Well, The Bubble has a twist. The guests are shut away from the world for a few days beforehand so they are oblivious to the stories, and then have to guess which one of a selection of them is true, and which are false.

Despite a few clunky elements, we enjoyed it. We're not sure we'll enjoy it every week, but in this opener the blend of guests and host was perfect.

Host David Mitchell's awkwardness in chairing proceedings amused through his discomfort in having to control and guide a show rather than the liberation of a panellist who can rant and rave without restriction. A weakness that Reginald D. Hunter took full advantage of, hilariously mocking the subdued Mitchell at every opportunity.

Victoria Coren's simmering disdain for the mothers of Mumsnet, whom she vilified for their shameless advertising of their fertility and deluded faith that they are in someway important, was a compelling advert for enforced national sterilisation in the belief that an extinct population is better than a conceited one. And she has a point.

While Frank Skinner picked out the idiosyncrasies in the stories, illuminating their absurdity. In the first round, he guessed that a report on Merseyside Police receiving a fine for using a mini-flying camera without permission because he thought an interview with a solicitor was too real: "No actor would play him that bleak."

We're not sure that the guests will be good enough to save it every week. If things get dour, we suppose Mitchell can always storm off on one of his tangential rants about the ridiculousness of the world. The opening news reports, however, were far too long and quite dull, while the show seemed to lack flow. You could see the join between each of the rounds as though the three rounds had been assembled from a much larger kit, most of which had been discarded because of obsolescence.

Although next week we'll be back. Tempted by the prospect of lines as good as: "The man who has celebrated Christmas every day for 14 years has been found crucified in his back garden."

The Bubble is yet another new topical panel show designed to capture the Have I Got News for You/QI audience. Its twist is to sequester participants away for three days without access to any media, and then show them a series of news and gossip stories. They must decide which are real and which are made-up. David Mitchell presents. Frank Skinner, Victoria Coren and comic Reginald D. Hunter are The Bubble's first victims.

This new comedy quiz show is based on the premise that some news stories are so preposterous that they might as well have been made up. A group of comedians and celebrities are locked away for four days in a media-free "bubble", without access to phones, TV, newspapers or the internet. Oddly enough, there was no shortage of volunteers. When they emerge, the host David Mitchell confronts them with reports, headlines and images, some real and some invented. They have to distinguish one from the other. Frank Skinner and Victoria Coren are the contestants tonight, while future guests include Marcus Brigstocke, Clive Anderson, Sue Perkins and Germaine Greer. Already a big success in Israel and Poland, the quiz looks likely be a lot of fun.

This is an odd one, a current affairs panel show that sounds like a weird hybrid of Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie to You? and Big Brother. Each week, three celebrity contestants will be locked away in a "media-free zone" without access to phones, television and the internet. After four days they will emerge, blinking into the light, to take their places in a television studio where The Bubble's quizmaster, the frighteningly learned and erudite David Mitchell, will question them on the week's news. But not just any news. The Bubble aims to dig out bizarre news and magazine stories so improbable they sound made up, and put them alongside fake items. It's down to the contestants to guess which ones are true. The Bubble's first participants are Frank Skinner, Reginald D. Hunter and Victoria Coren. We are told the format has done well overseas - but will The Bubble burst over here?

A new topical news format sees celeb panelists locked away in a media-free zone for three days. So far so good. Anything that gets Frank Skinner off the streets, even briefly, gets my vote.

But then, worse luck, they're let out to answer questions from quiz-master David Mitchell. Can they spot real news stories from fakes and should we care?

Other guests this week include the very funny ­Reginald D Hunter and Victoria Coren. Fingers crossed that Katie Price and Peter Andre can both be enticed to enter this media-free bubble and that a junior researcher "accidentally" loses the key.

Three into one can go, but they won't replace Humph

It is a tribute to the magnificent Humphrey Lyttelton that his replacement as host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue has been named as Stephen Fry. And Rob Brydon. And Jack Dee. A revolving comic trinity, in place of the one god.