Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a long running panel game which takes a satirical swipe at the world of popular music. Each edition features sarcastic humour and attacks on the current state of rock and pop music.

The show was originally hosted by Mark Lamarr, and then by Simon Amstell. The latest series was fronted by a series of guest hosts, including Alex James, Claudia Winkleman and James Corden.

One of the teams is lead by Phill Jupitus. The other side was originally lead by Sean Hughes until 2002, and then Bill Bailey took over until 2008. The new team captain is Noel Fielding.

Our Review: Like any panel show, the quality of the episodes very much depends upon the guests booked. Because this particular comedy books at least one musician per side each week, it is more prone to the peaks and troughs than other shows. It has to be said: it is often left to the host and team captains to make up for the musical guests' lacklustre attempts to make the audience laugh.

Something always guaranteed to start a fierce debate was whether the show was best under the reign of Simon Amstell (the 'fearless pop bitch') or the old host, Mark Lamarr (the more subtle 'attack dog'). Fans seem to be spilt 50/50, as is demonstrated by the opinions of two of the Editors of this website - one of them started watching the show again when Lamarr quit as "Amstell's lack of reverence and quick wit rejuvenated things", whilst the other stopped watching as he found Amstell "too annoying".

Although it would appear that you can't please the comedy fans on each side of the argument, the wider picture suggests Amstell's appointment was definitely a good move for the programme - it resulted in a boost in both the ratings and the show's appreciation index.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks has never been a stranger to controversy, but putting Amstell in charge (a man who was not afraid to ask guests awkward questions) saw notable moments increase ten-fold. Perhaps the most fun of these was when Samuel Preston from The Ordinary Boys walked off the show after Amstell mocked a number of un-intentionally humourous extracts from Chantelle Houghton's autobiography (who was his wife at the time).

The loss of Bill Bailey as team captain, with his unique combination of musical skill and comedy wit, was definitely a big blow to the programme and now that Amstell has decided to quit too it could, perhaps, be said the show is on its last legs...

Amstell's departure has most definitely weakened the format as, of all the guest hosts so far, only Jack Whitehall has dared to be rude to the guests, like Amstell used to be. It still remains to be seen if the show can continue to survive by employing guest hosts. No news yet on if it'll be back.