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A quiz league is an organization running quizzes on a home and away basis, usually in pubs. Like the pub quiz, it is chiefly a British phenomenon although the format has significant differences to a pub quiz due to the usual number of teams (two) and the presence of individual questions.
Two teams, one Home, one Away play each other, responding, perhaps alternately, often orally, to a questionmaster.
Many varying formats exist, one of the most widely played having been devised as a game used by soldiers when relaxing is usually known as the Merseyside Quiz Leagues (MQL) format. It consists of 64 questions in 8 rounds of 8 questions each asked to individuals on the teams alternately. Correctly answering your own question scores 2 points though it can be passed within the team (if the player chooses not to answer) or over to the other team (if the player or team answer wrongly) for one point.
In the MQL format, there is no conferring as such. Where a player decides not to answer their question, the team captain will normally decide which other member of the team is to answer by assessing the hand signals made by the players on the team and his/her own judgement. The opposition will also use hand signals to decide who is to answer the question in the event of it being passed over. After 4 rounds, the order of answering changes so the team who began round 1 going first begin round 5 going second. This is done by switching each team's questions from A to B or from B to A depending on which questions they started with. The MQL format is played by the main leagues in London and Merseyside.
Other formats exist that involve more conferring within teams, list rounds and "pick a category" rounds. All questions are team questions and both teams answer the same questions which are written down on an answer sheet and handed in at the end of the round. There are four rounds of ten questions, and a picture round.
Many quiz leagues run individual competitions. The format used by Merseyside Quiz Leagues and the Quiz League of London is the MIMIR quiz (named after Mímir, a god of Norse mythology who was renowned for his knowledge and wisdom). Matches are played in groups of four with positions drawn at random and each person has 3 questions addressed to them, in each of 5 rounds.
Time to answer is at the discretion of the question master but a wrong answer or a pass gives any of the other three an opportunity to score a bonus point. The decision as to who gets the first chance to answer for a bonus is determined by offering the question to whoever, at that stage, has made least attempts to gain bonus points or, if there is more than one player who has made the least bonus attempts, the next player in line (e.g. if this happened on the first question, P2 would have the first option on a bonus attempt). As well as a scorekeeper, a bonus counter is needed to track each player's bonus attempts.
Quiz bowl is a family of quiz-based competitions that test players on a wide variety of academic subjects. Standardized quiz bowl formats are played by lower school, middle school, high school, and university students throughout North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa.
College Bowl is a radio, television, and student quiz show. College Bowl first aired on the NBC Radio Network in 1953 as College Quiz Bowl. It then moved to American television broadcast networks, airing from 1959 to 1963 on CBS and from 1963 to 1970 on NBC. In 1977, the president of College Bowl, Richard Reid, developed it into a non-televised national championship competition on campuses across America through an affiliation with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI), which lasted for 31 years. In 1989, College Bowl introduced a (sponsored) version of College Bowl for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) called Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) which is ongoing. In 2007, College Bowl produced a new version and format of the game as an international championship in Africa, called Africa Challenge. The College Bowl Campus Program and National Championship ran until 2008.
A pub quiz is a quiz held in a pub or bar. These events are also called quiz nights, trivia nights, or bar trivia and may be held in other settings. The pub quiz is a modern example of a pub game, and often attempts to lure customers to the establishment on quieter days. The pub quiz has become part of British culture since its popularization in the UK in the 1970s by Burns and Porter, although the first mentions in print can be traced to 1959. It then became a staple in Irish pub culture, and its popularity has continued to spread internationally. Although different pub quizzes can cover a range of formats and topics, they have many features in common. Most quizzes have a limited number of team members, offer prizes for winning teams, and distinguish rounds by category or theme.
Trivia Trap is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson Productions. It was created by producer Goodson and originally ran from October 8, 1984 to April 5, 1985 on ABC. The game featured two teams of three contestants each competing against each other to answer trivia questions in various formats. Bob Eubanks was the host, and Gene Wood announced during the first two weeks. Charlie O'Donnell announced during the third week and was replaced by Bob Hilton for the remainder of the series.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian academic quiz competition for high school students. In the past, it has also been a game show nationally broadcast on the CBC. Matches are currently aired online through Reach for the Top's official YouTube channel. Teams qualify for national rounds through several stages of non-televised tournaments held at high schools throughout Canada during the year which are known as Schoolreach.
The National Science Bowl (NSB) is a high school and middle school science knowledge competition, using a quiz bowl format, held in the United States. A buzzer system similar to those seen on popular television game shows is used to signal an answer. The competition has been organized and sponsored by the United States Department of Energy since its inception in 1991.
Chain Reaction is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, in which players compete to form chains composed of two-word phrases.
Knowledge Bowl is the name for several interdisciplinary academic quiz bowl-like competitions across the United States and the world. The questions for many Knowledge Bowl competitions are supplied by the Academic Hallmarks company of Durango, Colorado.
itbox is a networked gambling games terminal which is found in thousands of pubs, leisure centres and amusement arcades in the United Kingdom. Classified as a "skill with prize" (SWP) machine, each itbox terminal typically includes 25 different games. Each game costs 50p or £1 to play and lasts between 10 seconds and several minutes. From most of these games it is possible to win modest cash prizes. Although strictly the name 'itbox' refers only to Leisure Link-made terminals, the name is often casually applied as a genericized trademark to other SWP terminals such as Paragon SWP, Gamesnet, ind:e and Fatbox.
Bible Quiz, also known as Bible Bowl or Bible Quizzing, is a quiz-bowl competition based on Bible memorization and study. The competition takes place between teams, and participants are quizzed on the content of a pre-determined section of the Bible. They are a popular activity in some Protestant churches and organizations, particularly in the United States. The exact rules of the game differ depending on the sponsoring organization.
Miljoenenjacht, officially Postcode Loterij Miljoenenjacht, is a Dutch game show, sponsored by the country's postcode lottery, where a contestant and at-home viewer could win up to €5,000,000 or as little as €0.01. The show is broadcast at various times, spanning across six episodes for each set. The program was originally shown by TROS on NPO 2, but moved to creator John de Mol's channel Tien in 2005. After the channel was discontinued after its sale to the RTL Group, the program moved to RTL 4. In 2019, the program moved to SBS6 due to the transfer of Linda de Mol from RTL to SBS.
Schools' Challenge is the primary national general knowledge competition for schools in the United Kingdom, founded by Colin Galloway in 1977 and currently run by Robert and Allison Grant. It has a resemblance to quizbowl competitions, as it runs off similar rules to its unofficial inspiration University Challenge. Schools' Challenge is currently divided into Senior, Intermediate and Junior tournament sections, which are run annually, and The Perse School are the current champions having won all sections in 2023.
MasterMinds is an academic quiz bowl program active in Upstate New York. There are currently four regions with associated leagues: Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Some games in the Albany and Rochester regions are broadcast on public-access television.
The Quiz League of London (QLL) is a British quiz league based in London. Founded in 1990 as the Quiz League of South London, it was southern England's first independent self-administered quiz league. The matches themselves are mostly hosted at pubs or social clubs, though the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to play its matches online. The following season (2021-22) saw a return to matches in person.
Clash! is an American comedy game show which aired on Ha! from May 1, 1990 to March 31, 1991, and on CTV: The Comedy Network/Comedy Central from April 1 to December 28. The show was produced and hosted by Billy Kimball, and the theme song was composed by Carter Burwell.
Whiz Quiz is a local TV program produced by WPBS-TV in Watertown, New York. It invites over 30 high-schools from across the North Country to participate in a quizbowl-style tournament. It debuted in 1980, and has been on the air since. The show airs on WPBS Mondays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m in the months of October and November. The American Championship Game starts at 8:00 p.m. The Championship Match is an hour-long show, with double the amount of questions.
The Brain Game is a weekly quiz bowl show for high school students that airs on NBC-affiliate WTHR-13 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Originally called Exercise in Knowledge when introduced in 1972, the Brain Game is currently broadcast at 7 pm on Saturdays, and is hosted by WTHR morning meteorologist Chuck Lofton. It is sponsored by Westfield Insurance, which also sponsors four other high school quiz shows. The show is filmed at the WTHR studios on Meridian Street in Indianapolis. The Brain Game has been filmed in HD since 2008.
Pointless is a British television quiz show produced by Banijay subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode, four teams of two contestants attempt to find correct but obscure answers to four rounds of general knowledge questions, with the winning team eligible to compete for the show's cash jackpot.
The 3rd Degree is a British quiz show broadcast on BBC Radio 4, hosted by comedian Steve Punt and made by Pozzitive Television. The series is recorded at different universities around the country, the contestants all coming from the university in which the recording takes place. One team consists of three students and the other of three lecturers who teach the subjects the students are studying.
Common Knowledge is an American television game show hosted by Joey Fatone that aired on Game Show Network from January 14, 2019 to August 13, 2021. On April 17, 2019, media reports stated that GSN had renewed the show for a 130-episode second season. On March 25, 2021, GSN renewed the show for a third season, which premiered on May 17, 2021.