Penn & Teller's Fool Us (lost website-exclusive video clips; 2011)

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Penn-and-teller-fool-us.jpg

Penn Jillete (left), Jonathan Ross (center), and Teller (right)

Status: Lost



Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a competitive television program starring legendary magicians Penn Jillette and Teller. The show consists of magicians from around the world performing their acts before the duo and an audience. Penn & Teller have one chance to see if they can figure out how the trick was performed. If they are wrong in their guess, or if they have no idea, the competing magician has successfully fooled them and wins the chance to perform in their nightly Las Vegas show (or receive the cash equivalent) along with a trophy.

The series currently runs on the CW, where it has aired since 2014, and is hosted by Alyson Hannigan. Before the CW picked it up, however, it ran for a short season in 2011 on the British channel ITV, where Jonathan Ross was the host. Most of the performances from this first season were used in the CW's original run, albeit edited and aired in a different order. There are some acts that have never been shown on air, though.

According to the show's Wikipedia article, three performances from the 2011 pilot episode of Fool Us were made exclusive to the ITV website - alternate routines by Morgan & West and Damien O'Brien (different to the ones that were aired on television), and a trick by Noel Qualter. ITV never made these video clips available outside the UK, and according to Michael Close, a consultant on the show's current run, any unaired material the CW acquired is restricted and unavailable for viewing by anyone. The only way it would be made public is if it were to be released as bonus material on a DVD. Since the executive producers have no plans to release a DVD, the footage of these performances is essentially lost.