BBC One’s Have I Got News For You rewrote its closing round just minutes before Friday’s recording after producers learned of the day-long social-media brawl between President Donald Trump and Tesla-SpaceX chief Elon Musk. Host Richard Ayoade fronted the season-69 finale, joined by panellists Jack Dee and sports broadcaster Kelly Cates at Riverside Studios; the episode airs tonight at 9 p.m. and later on BBC iPlayer.
Hat Trick Productions often tapes the show on transmission day to allow late edits, but crew members told Deadline that Thursday’s rewrite was “one of the sharpest pivots in years,” with new graphics illustrating the Trump-Musk exchanges dropped into the autocue on site.
The feud dominating the fresh material began when Musk called Trump’s flagship “Big Beautiful Bill” a “disgusting abomination” and backed a post urging Congress to impeach him, while also alleging the president appears in sealed Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump replied from the Oval Office that he was “very disappointed” in Musk and threatened to strip federal contracts, prompting Musk to float de-commissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft before rowing back hours later.
The Guardian’s rolling blog tallied a 14.2 per cent slump in Tesla shares—about $152 billion in market value—during the trading session that preceded the programme’s taping. Conservative firebrand Steve Bannon escalated matters, telling the New York Times that Musk should be investigated and “deported… immediately,” a remark he reiterated to multiple outlets.
Writers fed those beats straight to regular captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, whose satirical barbs are vetted by BBC lawyers under long-standing protocols designed to excise potentially defamatory lines before broadcast.
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Extended editions, branded Have I Got a Bit More News for You, will incorporate additional banter when they stream Monday on BBC Two, reflecting the programme’s practice of pairing a tight 29-minute network cut with a longer version online.
Early social-media clips from the rehearsal circulate on X and Threads, drawing praise from viewers who see the segment as a brisk antidote to a rancorous week, while pro-Trump commentators accuse the BBC of bias. Audience figures for tonight’s broadcast will be scrutinised by industry watchers after the series averaged 3.8 million this spring, according to internal BBC overnights.
