Big Brother’s Nasty Nick scandal, The Sopranos’ controversial finale and X Factor’s industry-shifting debut lead British GQ’s list of 25 moments that changed TV forever

Television quickly became the most exciting, influential and daring art form of the 21st century.

Programmes and series have had the power to change narratives, ideas and start political movements.

And now, celebrities behind the episodes have shared the untold stories behind the most iconic TV moments between 2000 and 2025.

For their latest edition, British GQ spoke to the likes of Davina McCall, Simon Cowell and Phoebe Waller Bridge.

Asked about the beginning of reality television and Big Brother in 2000, Ms McCall, 57, remembered one iconic moment where contestant Nasty Nick played members off each other.

‘Nobody knew what they were doing,’ said Big Brother’s legendary presenter – and still perhaps its biggest fan – Davina McCall of the Channel 4 team responsible.

Big Brother’s Nasty Nick scandal has joined British GQ’s list of 25 moments that shaped TV from 2000 to 2025

Another TV show to make the list was The X-Factor, for disrupting the pop industry from 2004 (Leona Lewis pictured in the 2006 series)

‘Nobody’d ever worked with real members of the public before. It really was a social experiment. If we give them alcohol, what happens? If we leave them with no connection with the outside world, what’s going to happen? We just had no idea.

‘The press got so out of control, we started worrying about [Nick’s] safety.

‘Eventually, he got kicked out and we had to sneak him off to a hotel to try and keep him safe. I remember going to buy a pair of pants in Tesco so I could go into hiding, so people wouldn’t know where I was going to interview him. It was mad.’

Another TV show to make the list was The X-Factor, for disrupting the pop industry from 2004.

‘People had a real appetite to buy these kinds of [reality] shows,’ Cowell told GQ.

‘So when we pitched it, they pretty much bought it in the room. We initially were going to call it Star Wars, and then someone told me [I] might have a slight issue with the trademark.’

The Office, The Osbournes and Lost also made the list.

As did CSI, The OC, The Sopranos and Mad Men.

‘People had a real appetite to buy these kinds of [reality] shows,’ Cowell told GQ. ‘So when we pitched it, they pretty much bought it in the room  (Simon Cowell is pictured with winner Steve Brookstein)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 40, who created, wrote and starred in the comedy series Fleabag in 2016 won numerous accolades for her work

Also on the list was the controversial finale to US mob drama The Sopranos, which due to its abrupt ending, led millions to question whether their TVs has broken

Ricky Gervais’ The Office also made the list, for redefining comedy – and how we speak – forever

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 40, who created, wrote and starred in the comedy series Fleabag in 2016 won numerous accolades for her work.

She told GQ: ‘I wanted to write about a f*****-up woman whose bad behaviour couldn’t be explained by one big traumatic assault in her past, but just by the multitudes of paper cuts that come from living in the modern world.

‘But mainly I wanted to write a woman who was so funny about her pain that we didn’t see it coming. A tragedy hidden in what seemed at first to be a light sex comedy.’

Series such as House of Cards, Black Mirror and Game of Thrones were also named by GQ.

In 2004 US drama series Lost spawned the era of the online superfan – pictrued Evangeline Lilly and Matthew Fox

In 2002 The Osbournes marked the start of family reality shows and opened the door for The Kardashians 

Nicole Kidman, 58, was asked about Big Little Lies which was her gateway from film to TV in 2017.

‘The limited series became incredibly valuable and important and viable,’ she said.

‘I hadn’t ever seen women talking like this before.’

When asked why she now does more TV work than film, she said: ‘I just have more opportunities in doing something very entertaining on television. I can do something that’s got mass appeal.’

June 2013 — Game of Thrones’ invited us to the Red Wedding

Elsewhere on the list was Love Island for its iconic 2019 year, I May Destroy You for defining the #MeToo moment and lockdown’s Normal People.

RuPaul’s Drag Race was highlighted for bring drag into the mainstream in 2021 as well as Adolescence which was about a 13-year-old boy driven by the manosphere to murder a female classmate.

Sarah Owen, a Labour MP said the show spread like lightning in Westminster.

‘For politicians that weren’t engaged with this already, all of a sudden they were getting emails from concerned parents, from teachers or from young people themselves,’ she said.