University Challenge

University Challenge is one of the company Granada (now ITV daughter) produced British quiz show, which runs since 1962 with a break on TV, currently on BBC 2 in several Commonwealth countries there are similar, with the same programs.

Beginnings in America

The Canadian Don Reid had to organize in the 1940s as a spectator of a college basketball game, inspiration, competitions in quiz between university teams. He called the format "College Bowl" and went with it in 1953 in the NBC radio broadcast. 1959 gave the show her television debut on CBS; In 1963 the return to NBC (now on TV) and ran there until 1970 ( in the last two years in prime time ).

It is in the " Bowl " format to a naturally hard -held team quiz for teams of four people with two types of questions:

• "Starter", which are read in the so -called " Pyramid -style"; of more exotic solution hints is the text to ever clearer, simpler questions. Any individual player can einbuzzern, but then must respond immediately and without the help of his team. Incorrect answers are penalized, the other team they can then listen to the end.
• " Bonus Questions ": a team responds correctly, she gets three bonus questions. Here, the team may just advise, wrong answers mean no penalty.

The company " College Bowl" existed until well into 2008, were also sporadic comebacks in Radio and Television ( in the 1970s ), but played from the 1990s due to declining quality no longer matters in the college scene. There were two strong competitors with Established in 1990, ACF (Academic Competition Federation ) and the slightly larger established in 1996 NAQT ( National Academic Quiz Tournaments ), which is supported among others by Ken Jennings. The relationship between these two organizations is more friendly, but both have never made it into the U.S. television.

British University Challenge

1962-1987

1962 bought the company "Granada" the international rights to this format and created in Britain a separate competition with slightly different rules. From Oxford and Cambridge each college must provide their own team. 25 years, 913 shows were filmed with the quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne on the commercial broadcaster ITV, then came the corner.

From 1994

Nacfh seven -year break, the show was in 1994 2 successfully resuscitated at the BBC in the ad-free environment of the BBC. Quizmaster Jeremy Paxman is to this day. Currently, 28 teams are seen on television who have a pre-selection behind. 14 qualify directly; the best point losers can play for the remaining places. Then it's a knock- on. The winner of each series only get a trophy, no money. In a poll of the best British television programs of all time, the Show 2000 finished 34th.

• Peter Gwynn: 40 Years University Challenge. Granada Media, 2002, ISBN 0-233-05082-5.
• University Challenge Quiz Book. BBC Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84607-856-9.

Well-known former candidate

David Lidington, Minister of State for European Affairs in the Foreign Ministry by David Cameron, won in 1978 as captain of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Dorjana Širola from Croatia, one of the best quiz player in the world, won in 2002 with the Somerville College, Oxford University. Among the players who did not win but later became famous, there are, among others, Stephen Fry, Clive James, Sebastian Faulks, Tim Boswell, Christopher Hitchens and Mary Robinson.