7 Days is a New Zealand comedy game show focused on current events, hosted by Jeremy Corbett and created by thedownlowconcept. It has aired on Three since its premiere in 2009. Two teams, consisting of a team captain until 2022, nearly always Paul Ego and Dai Henwood and other comedians, answer questions about stories from the last week; since 2022, the team captains have changed each week. , 7 Days has aired for 16 seasons, with a 17th planned for 2025.

Show format

At the start of each show, Jeremy Corbett announces a content warning, saying "the following show is for adults only and contains bad language that may offend some people". This is often followed by an opening joke based on an event in the past seven days. On some occasions, the content warning became the joke – including being said in a parody of Downfall (following several Auckland schoolboys saluting the Nazi flag), being missed out completely (while the Prime Minister was out of the country), and being texted while driving (two days before the ban on use of mobile phones while driving came into force). While the show is normally screened at 9:30pm and originally 10pm, the episode on 21 October 2011 was screened at the earlier time of 7:30pm and as a result was a PGR rated show. The opening segment mentioned the show was PGR and then replaced a few swear words with cleaner equivalents such as fudge. The show was moved to the earlier time to coincide with the screening of the 2011 Rugby World Cup Bronze Final. After the title card, Corbett introduces the leaders of each team, normally Paul Ego for Team 1 and Dai Henwood for Team 2, although one episode featured an all-Australian team replacing Dai Henwood's team. After the leader of each team is introduced, the leader introduces the rest of their team. Regular team members include Ben Hurley, Josh Thomson, Steve Wrigley, Jeremy Elwood, Urzila Carlson, Jesse Griffin, Madeleine Sami, Michèle A'Court and Justine Smith. Special guest comedians appear on some episodes. There are usually 5-7 games in each show, with "What's the Story" always being the first, and "Caption That" usually being last. After the teams guess the story, Corbett confirms the actual story before adding a joke of his own. In early episodes, Corbett also intervened if the joke made was in bad taste, or he became the butt of the joke, yelling "get out" and making the contestant pretend to leave. Teams are allocated "points" at the end of the round based on numbers in the news. In earlier episodes, Corbett randomly allocated point to the teams based on their performance. The team winning the most rounds wins the episode, but this is not always the case. An MVP was awarded in earlier episodes which was later removed. One of the panellists thanks NZ On Air to close the show.

Games

Games played include:

Recurring panelists

Dai Henwood and Paul Ego were permanent members of each team through season 14; a number of recurring comedians made up the remaining positions on the panels each night. This group have all been in more than two episodes and includes Ben Hurley, Josh Thomson, Steve Wrigley, Jeremy Elwood, Urzila Carlson, Jesse Grffin, Madeleine Sami, Michele A'Court, Cal Wilson, Claire Hooper, Heath Franklin (as Chopper), James Acaster, Joseph Moore, Jesse Mulligan, Peter Helliar and Jay-Jay Feeney.

Episodes

Season 1 (2009)

Special (2009)

Season 2 (2010)

Season 3 (2011)

Season 4 (2012)

Special (2012)

Season 5 (2013)

Season 6 (2014)

Season 7 (2015)

Season 8 (2016)

Special (2016)

Season 9 (2017)

Season 10 (2018)

Season 11 (2019)

Season 12 (2020)

Season 13 (2021)

Following the lockdown in Auckland, from episode 12 onwards there is Perspex sheeting between team leader and guest(s), and the studio audience is replaced with a virtual one. The segment "That's the Spirit" is sponsored by Woodstock Bourbon.

Season 14 (2022)

With this season, the show moved to an earlier 7:30pm timeslot and a new hour-long broadcast; saw a new logo, redesigned set, and reworked theme song; and team leaders (in bold) became rotated week-to-week. Teams began receiving point totals at the end of each show. Each episode features a caption contest sponsored by Frank Energy. Episodes broadcast in May 2022 averaged over 180,000 viewers, an improvement from below 160,000 viewers for the series premiere in February. Ratings then declined below 170,000, before increasing steadily to over 200,000 viewers for the series finale.

Season 15 (2023)

The series launched to 141,800 viewers. During this season, Dole sponsored the Club Topicana segment.

Season 16 (2024)

Season16 premiered on 4April 2024. Frank Energy sponsored this season's "Fill in the Frank" caption contest, and Dole again sponsored the Club Topicana segment.

Specials

Occasionally a special edition of 7 Days screens, breaking out of the show's traditional format. Examples of such specials are: In addition, there are several "road" episodes where the show has been taken outside the Auckland studio to other centres on New Zealand, including Christchurch (2011 and 2012) and Queenstown (2012). Nearly all of these episodes feature the game 'Yes Minister' with the local mayor or another local figure (the Wizard of New Zealand appeared in the 2012 Christchurch episode) as the "minister".