Penn & Teller: Fool Us (2024)

Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a British-American television programme. Hosted by Alyson Hannigan and filmed at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Fool Us is a magic competition in which magicians perform tricks in front of American magician-comedian duo . If Penn & Teller cannot figure out how a trick was done, the magician or magicians who performed it win a five-star trip to Las Vegas to perform as the opening act in Penn & Teller's world-famous show, also at the Rio Hotel & Casino. The first season was filmed at Fountain Studios.

It was announced on 28 June 2012 that ITV had cancelled the show, despite its averaging 4 million viewers, higher than the timeslot average. After finding moderate ratings success in running the ITV-produced episodes during the summer of 2014, The CW ordered a second season of original episodes to air in 2015. The second season has been a ratings hit for The CW, giving the network its highest ratings in that time slot compared to the previous 5 years. On August 11, 2015 the series was renewed for a third season by The CW.

Production and format[]

The pilot of Fool Us was first commissioned by John Kaye Cooper, the controller of entertainment for ITV. In February 2011, it was announced that due to good viewing figures, a series of eight episodes had been commissioned, and would be produced by September Films and 1/17 Productions. The eight episodes were shot in a ten-day filming block, and began airing in June 2011.

Each episode starts off with the introduction stating the purpose of the series. Penn and Teller come out and take their seat towards center stage, and hopeful magicians perform their acts in front of them with a live studio audience. At the end of the episode, the duo perform a magic act of their own.

Episodes[]

Performers in blue fool in the episode.

Season 1[]

*Martinez presented himself as Cuban, but Penn & Teller outed him as Bulgarian after his act.
**Although Penn & Teller could not explain the essence of how Farquhar had performed his card trick, Jillette stated that he had caught him performing a deck switch at the beginning of the trick, and therefore did not consider him to have fooled them completely. Nonetheless, he won the opportunity to go to Vegas.

Season 2[]