ITV did a sort of rip off of this. It was made in 1998 or 1999 and featured Steve Punt as the host and Hugh Dennis as one of the captains. It also featured newspaper cuttings from Mike Scott (he is in the Kent newspapers).
shareITV will never be able to rip this off completely- they tried again with "News Night" which was Trevor MacDonald (a newsreader, not a comedian) and Marcus Brigstock (a professional arse, not a comedian), and some other guy (did they change that one every week? Let's just call him Mr. Random.)
Basically, ITV aren't able to start a convincing satire show. They have to keep in mind that some of their audience have dried wallpaper paste for brains, and ITV are just not that brave. Having said that, I don't think the Beeb would start a show as good as HIGNFY these days. Even Mock the Week isn't nearly as good as this- far more formulaic- and that's the closest imitation HIGNFY we've had recently.
I remember "If I Ruled the World", that was a rip-off and only lasted one series.
share"ITV aren't able to start a convincing satire show."
Spitting Image, anyone?
But you're right, everything they've tried in the last decade or so has flopped (except for 2DTV, albeit briefly - before it too descended into an unfunny, celebrity-obsessed programme with no political content, cos politics is, like, boring). The problem in my view is not that ITV has a thick audience, but that the programme makers assume it does, so all their attempts at satire have to involve crap celebrity gags (usually including Peter Andre and Jordan, or Posh and Becks) or have to have some tired old ITV hack at the helm, like Sir Trev (who is obviously uncomfortable with satire and comedy timing). This is why News Knight and 2DTV were pretty much doomed from the start. If they didn't begin so lowbrow, ITV might have some surprising ratings. But judging by Michael Grade's first set of shows, they won't be changing their lowbrow policy any time soon.