I guess I’m not really familiar with what these panel shows are. Would this be like when Colin Quinn had that show where a bunch of top comics sat around talking about topics? Politically Incorrect/whatever Bill Maher does now? Or more like a game show like Hollywood Squares, Celebrity Pyramid, Win/Lose/Draw? What about those shows that were always on VH1 like “Best Week Ever” (the only time I’ve ever seen Melissa Rauch on tv since I stopped watching Big Bang around 2007) and “I Love the 80s”? Chelsea Handler’s show? James Corden (I guess that’s mostly the regular stars plugging things but in a different format, not comedians) I guess I’m just trying to think of non-sitcoms where multiple U.S. comedians would appear on a show, and it seems like there WERE many. Maybe not now, but I haven’t watched TV in years.
Are you familiar with* Who’s Line Is It Anyway*? Like that, although they generally don’t require such extreme improv skills. Think “fake game show” with comedians and actors.
I’m not sure if the financial outcomes stack up so much in favour of touring and stage shows, but some other possible reasons might be
(a) it’s easier money
(b) it advertises them to a wider potential audience for their tours and stage shows.
Youtube has bunch of these. I like the Big Fat Quizzes, but there isn’t a lot of them.
Easy money is the simple answer.
Hosting Have I Got News For You pays between £5,000 to £10,000 a show.
Not bad for an afternoons work reading jokes from an autocue.
Crafting a standup act requires a lot of time and effort and TV exposes material to a wide audience, so you have to write more original material. Some comedians make an entire career out of an act just repeated endlessly at live gigs. Improvised appearances on panel shows are complimentary to that. They don’t use their best material, they just spark off each other and pick up a pay cheque on the way out.
Improvisational comedy is much easier. Panel shows are edited so you only see the funniest bits or their fooling around. No trying out material and crafting its delivery so the timing is perfected, it is all off the cuff.
I really get tired of this sort of improv, it is cheap TV. It works better on radio. Radio shows are even cheaper to make. No need for makeup and the editing is simpler. UK radio shows on the BBC get huge audiences and the performers seem to go on forever.
Apart from Bill Bailey you’ve just written a list of people whose careers are based on scripted comedy which was kind of my point (and actually Bill Bailey has done a few too - remember Black Books?)
If you promote yourself on tv people are more likely to sell out your shows
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I think shows like 8 out of 10 Cats and Have I Got News for You are better examples of these shows with comedians making up impromptu jokes than QI (which was referred to above as Quite Interesting, although it’s not generally mentioned by that longer name) or Big Fat Quiz of X (where X can be various time periods). QI and Big Fat Quiz actually almost seem attempts like quiz programs, while 8 out of 10, Have I Got, Was It Something I Said?, Mock the Week, or Never Mind the Buzzcocks are closer to being just improv. I think you should realize that panel shows with some improvising of all sorts are more common in the U.K. than in the U.S. For instance, there’s A Question of Sports, which has athletes lamely improvising. These attempts at improvising are actually distracting in some cases. I have told people that QI is the most disappointing British TV show I know of. The subjects of the questions and answers are usually fascinating, but the improvised jokes are mostly lame.