Richard Osman Stepping Down As House Of Games Host

Richard Osman just announced that he’s stepping down from hosting game shows. Richard Osman’s House of Games airs 5 days a week on BBC Two, but as Osman stated on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, it will soon be getting a new host and a new name. Said new host has yet to be announced, but Osman says that he’ll appear on one final week, where he will hand House of Games over to the next presenter. On the podcast, Osman emphasized how much he enjoyed hosting the show. In fact, he met his wife Ingrid Oliver through House of Games, when she appeared as a contestant.

In addition to announcing his departure on his podcast, Osman also took to social media to thank the show’s staff and fans.

House of Games has seen a good deal of success during its 8-year run thus far. Each week, four celebrity contestants play a variety of trivia games, in an attempt to score the most points on the leaderboard across five episodes. The show has been praised for its wide variety of games, as well as the range of celebrities that have taken part over the years.

Osman has seen a good deal of success as an author in recent years. His mystery novel The Thursday Murder Club set sales records when it was published in 2020, and he’s written four more books in the series since then. The first book received a Netflix movie adaptation, which came out in 2025.

Aside from House of Games, Osman was also well known for his role on Pointless. He took on the role of Alexander Armstrong’s co-host from 2009 to 2022, before leaving the show to devote more time to his writing career. He also briefly hosted the game show Two Tribes in 2014 and 2015.

In addition to his work on House of Games and Pointless, Osman also took part in many other quiz, game, and panel shows. He finished third in the second series of Taskmaster, and he also appeared on other panel shows like Would I Lie to You, Have I Got News for You, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and QI. He was also an executive producer and occasional contestant on 8 Out of 10 Cats and its spin-off 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Osman served as a script editor on Total Wipeout, and he wrote questions for a few episodes of Only Connect.