Games

Games played include:

What's the Story?

News footage with the sound removed or a photo, usually from 3 News but occasionally from ONE News, is shown while team members make humorous comments and then try and work out what the story is about.

Caption That

A caption contest: a news photograph is shown and the teams are required to invent their own (usually humorous) captions for it.

My Kid Could Draw That

A primary school child explains a picture they drew about a recent news story, and the teams must work out what it is before the kid tells them what it is.

Answers

Teams are given an answer related to a news event in the last 7 days and are required to work out what the question is, in the style of the American quiz Jeopardy!.^[1]

History

A video clip of a New Zealand historical event is played, and a person shown in the clip is then brought into the studio together with three look-alikes. The teams are required to guess which one is the person in the video. This is based on a segment in the British pop music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks.^[2] The segment was once played with when teams had to guess which one of the group of four was a Lawson quintuplet (New Zealand's only living set of quintuplets), not realising that the four people were four of the five quintuplets.

Community News

A newspaper headline is given, but with missing words, and the teams are required to work out the missing words. This is based on a round from the UK news quiz Have I Got News for You.^[3]

Slice of Seven

A musician comes on to the show and sings a song about a news story and the teams have to try guess the story. The name of the segment references the 1986 Dave Dobbyn single "Slice of Heaven".

Yes Minister

A political figure (usually an MP, but mayors are also common) makes an appearance, and the teams ask them closed-ended questions which the guest must answer without saying "yes" or "no" (or saying or gesturing similar). The team who makes the "minister" say 'yes' or 'no' wins. The segment's concept originated in the "Yes-No Interlude" in the game show Take Your Pick,^[4] and its name is a reference to the 1980s British sitcom Yes Minister.

Quote Me

A photo of a person and an acronym of a quote that person said during the last 7 days are given to each team, and they must come up with the correct full quote. This is based on a round from Mock the Week.

My Professional Opinion

A video clip is played with people with the same occupation (e.g. butchers, lifeguards etc.), sharing their opinion to a news story from the last 7 days but don't say what the story actually is. The teams must guess what they are talking about. After both teams have guessed another video clip is played with the people telling them "that was my professional opinion, on the (news story)". This game replaced a similar earlier game called Taxi Driver, in which a taxi driver talks about a story from the last seven days.

That's The Spirit

Used on the live show held at the SkyCity Casino in Auckland on 6 April 2011. Each team has to tell the audience about an interesting news story they have noticed in the last 7 days, an image of the article in a newspaper or webpage is shown to the audience. Formerly named Show and Tell.

In my opinion/To be honest/On the bright side/All I want for Christmas (used for the 2010 series finale)

A filler at the end of the show if running early, after the final scores have been added and the winner awarded. Team members form a humorous opinion on news stories of the week.

Guest who?

Introduced in season five, a person involved with a news story from the past week has their head covered with a black cloth, and the teams must ask closed-ended questions and the mystery guest will answer "yes" or "no". The teams will continue to ask yes-or-no questions until one team is able to work out who the guest is.

Yeah Nah

Introduced in season five, this game works very similar to a debate, where the host presents a statement and one team will be the agreeing team and one will be the disagreeing team. The teams will then give reasons as to why they agree or disagree. A winner is picked by the host at the end of the round.

AV Department

Introduced in season five, as a secondary school equivalent of 'My Kid Could Draw That'. A group of secondary school students must produce a short film based on a news story from the past 7 days, and the panellists are required to work out the story from the clip produced.

Like Sex

Introduced in season nine, each team has to describe how a thing is like sex.

Club Topicana

Introduced in season 14 - and similar to Mock the Week's "Scenes We'd Like to See" segment - it invites the panellists to tell a series of jokes by inhabiting a character in a certain situation dictated by Corbett based on a news story from the week.

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 7:30 pm 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.^[10] 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,^[11] an improvement from below 160,000 viewers for the series premiere in February.^[12] Ratings then declined below 170,000,^[13] before increasing steadily to over 200,000 viewers for the series finale.^[14]

Season 15 (2023)

The series launched to 141,800 viewers.^[15] During this season, Dole sponsored the Club Topicana segment.

Season 16 (2024)

Season 16 premiered on 4 April 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".^{[citation needed]}