University Challenge

University Challenge
Genre	Quiz show
Presented by	Bamber Gascoigne (1962–87) Jeremy Paxman (1994–)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	46
No. of episodes	1,671 (as of 26 October 2015)[1]
Production
Location(s)	Granada Studios (1962–2013) MediaCityUK (2013–)
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Granada Television
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV (1962–87) BBC Two (1994–present)
Picture format	4:3 (1962–2000) 16:9 (2001–present)
Audio format	Mono (1962–87) Stereo (1994–present)
Original release	21 September 1962 – present
Chronology
Related shows	College Bowl University Challenge: The Professionals The 3rd Degree

University Challenge is a British quiz programme which first aired in 1962. University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quiz master Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC revived the programme on 21 September 1994 with Jeremy Paxman as the quizmaster.

The current holders are Peterhouse, Cambridge, who won the 45th series in 2016.

The show is produced by Granada Television (re-branded as ITV Studios in 2009), under licence from Richard Reid Productions and the College Bowl Company.^[2] It was filmed at Granada Studios in Manchester from its inception until the studios closed down in 2013; it is now filmed at MediaCityUK in Salford.

History

Format continuity

Despite periodic changes to the sets, studio layout, and presentation, University Challenge has evolved in a manner that has preserved a remarkably high level of continuity from 1962 to the present. Some commentators have cited this as an essential element of its success.^[3] Elements of this continuity include:

• The long service of its quiz masters, with only two presenters over more than half a century of broadcasting history;
• The instantly recognisable split-screen presentation during the starter question phase, which appears to place one team physically above the other (parodied by an actual double-decker set in the mock edition of the programme in The Young Ones – see below). In the final years of the original Bamber Gascoigne era, the studio set genuinely was double-decker, removing the need for the electronically generated effect, although it returned for the revived series and has been used ever since;
• Long serving voiceover announcers, with only three in more than half a century – Don Murray-Henderson from 1962 until his death in 1971, then Jim Pope until his death in 2001, then Roger Tilling;
• The theme tune College Boy composed by Derek New, which has been used almost throughout. (the original theme was actually a different jazzy score). Originally an electronic version, this has since been replaced by a classical version recorded by the Balanescu Quartet.

ITV

The programme had its beginnings in an American television quiz show called College Bowl. Cecil Bernstein, brother of Sidney Bernstein who founded Granada Television in 1954, had seen the programme in the United States and liked the format. It was decided that Granada would produce a similar programme with competing teams from universities across the United Kingdom.^[4] From its inception in 1962, University Challenge was hosted by Bamber Gascoigne. The show was a cult favourite with a small but loyal core audience, and was one of a select few ITV shows that were transmitted without any advertising breaks. Originally, the series started off in many areas, being broadcast at peak times or just after the nightly news around 22.30; by the early 1970s, the series was relegated to irregular timeslots by the various ITV regional companies, appearing anywhere in the scheduled; daytime, weekends,or even late at night. In the absence of a regular networked slot, audience figures would often fall, leading the producers to make changes to the long-standing format of the programme. The series was given a rest for the whole of 1985, before returning in April 1986, when it was finally networked by ITV and stripped across the weekday slot of 3pm. The Gameplay was revised, initial games were staged over two legs; the first in the classic format and the second played as a relay, where contestants selected questions from specific categories such as sport, literature and science, passing a baton between players whenever a "lap" of two correct answers was scored. The final series was also network but broadcast around 11am during the summer holiday period. Even so, the new networked time did little to save the series from the axe.

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge could each enter as separate teams up to five of their constituent colleges, which are not themselves universities: they have far fewer students – numbering in the hundreds rather than thousands – than most universities. This was one ostensible inspiration for an unusual 1975 protest. A team from the Victoria University of Manchester (which included David Aaronovitch) came second to Downing College, Cambridge when they started a round by answering every question "Che Guevara", "Marx", "Trotsky" or "Lenin",^[5] possibly in the hope of making the resulting show unbroadcastable.^[6] It did, however, get broadcast, although only portions of the episode still exist in the archives of Granada TV. Granada banned the University of Manchester for several years.^[7]

BBC

It was eventually revived in 1994 by the BBC, although still produced by Granada Television, using the original format with minor differences and presented by Jeremy Paxman.

During the show's hiatus, a special edition of the show was made, not by Granada but by BBC Television, as part of a themed evening of programmes dedicated to Granada Television. It was presented by Bamber Gascoigne, and screened on BBC2 on 28 December 1992. The teams included one made up of students from Keble College, Oxford, which had fielded the winning team in the final 1987 season; and a graduates team made up of celebrity alumni who had previously starred on the programme as students, including journalist John Simpson and actor Stephen Fry. This show was preceded by a short documentary about the show's history. Bamber Gascoigne's final appearance as host was in Universe Challenge in 1998 (see below).

Postgraduates

The show has, since its revival in 1994, featured a number of very high standard teams of postgraduate and mature students, who perhaps have a greater breadth of general knowledge.^[8] The Open University (OU) won the 1999 series with a team whose ages averaged 46. In the quarter-final, they beat a slightly younger team from part-time and mature student specialist Birkbeck, University of London, by only one question. But Birkbeck won in 2003, also with a substantially mature team. Host Jeremy Paxman publicly criticised the OU team as not being in the spirit of the competition.^[9] The team publicly replied by challenging him to specify in what way this was "contrary to the spirit of the quiz – or of the university".^[10]

Ineligible contestants

In 2009, Sam Kay, part of the team from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was accused of not being a student when the show was filmed.^[11] Kay, who had completed a chemistry degree the previous summer, had been planning to go on to study for a Doctor of Philosophy, but he did not have sufficient funding so dropped out. He then became an accountant.^[12] The team, whose captain Gail Trimble was dubbed the "human Google",^[13] won the competition but was subsequently disqualified and the trophy awarded to the runners-up, the University of Manchester.^[14]

A few days later, it was also revealed that Charles Markland, a member of the 2008 winning team from Christ Church, Oxford, had transferred his studies to Balliol College halfway through the series. He said that his team captain had contacted a researcher concerning the situation, and had been told that this was not a problem and that the same team should be maintained for continuity purposes.^[15] It was also revealed that Freya McClements, captain of the 2004 winning team from Magdalen College, Oxford, was at the time studying at Trinity College, Dublin. Although it was mentioned in a BBC news story at the time, no action was taken because the BBC stated that the facts had not been brought to their attention.^[16][17]

Editing

In 2016, at the Henley Literary Festival, Jeremy Paxman revealed that, when students were unable to answer several consecutive starter questions, those questions were often deleted before the show is broadcast. He explained that this was done to make a better programme and because "you as a taxpayer do not want to think your money is being wasted."^[18]

In popular culture

• In 1984, an episode of The Young Ones, entitled "Bambi" (a play on the host's name), centred on a parody of University Challenge with a match between the fictitious teams of Scumbag College and Footlights College, Oxbridge. The cast included Stephen Fry, who participated in the real competition in 1980 while at Cambridge, and fellow alumni and Footlights members Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie as part of the "Footlights College" team and Griff Rhys Jones as the host.^[19]
• A quiz themed around BBC science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, broadcast in 1998, was entitled Universe Challenge. It opened as if it were a regular episode, but with Chris Barrie imitating Jeremy Paxman. Bamber comes from behind with a blaster gun and blows him out of the chair, so he can host. This was Bamber Gascoigne's last appearance as host.^[20]
• In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, University Challenge was placed 34th.^[21]
• The quiz was the subject of the hour-long BBC Two documentary The Story So Far, first broadcast in December 2008.^[22]
• Armando Ianucci's Time Trumpet presented a parody of University Challenge, set in a future where students are 'too lazy to learn'; this parody was later referenced in an episode of the real series of University Challenge by the team captain of SOAS, John Joseph Perry, who, not knowing the real answer, simply answered "Venezuela?"
• Starter For Ten is the title of a novel, first published in 2003, by British author David Nicholls, who also adapted the novel for a full-length film of the same name in 2006. The plot involves the first-year student Brian Jackson (played in the film by James MacAvoy) who attempts to join his university team competing in University Challenge.

Game play

From a 1994 episode of University Challenge

Teams

Teams consist of four members and most represent a single university. The exceptions to this are colleges of the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the University of London, which enter independent teams. While a number of other British universities have constituent colleges, only those where some teaching is undertaken at the college-level may enter independent teams. The competing teams each year are selected by the show's producers, based both on scores from a general trivia quiz and the producers' judging of the suitability of the teams for television.^[23] Durham University has appeared most frequently in the post-1994 format,^[24] though Oxford, Cambridge and London have had colleges representing the universities in every series.^[25]

Tournament structure

The current tournament format used for each series is that of a direct knockout tournament starting with 28 teams. The 14 first-round winners progress directly to the last 16. Two matches, involving the four highest scoring losing teams from the first round, whose losing scores often exceed winning scores in other first-round matches, fill the remaining places in the last 16. Teams in the quarter-final round (last 8 teams) have to win two matches in the round to progress to the semi-finals. Equally, teams must lose two quarter-final matches in order to be eliminated from that round. The pairings for matches are often chosen in order to keep stronger teams apart.^[26]

Question format

"Starter" questions are answered individually "on the buzzer" without conferring and are worth 10 points. "Your starter for 10" became the programme's most famous catchphrase and inspired David Nicholls' 2003 novel Starter for Ten and the 2006 film based on it starring James McAvoy. The team answering a starter correctly gets a set of three "bonus" questions worth a potential 15 points over which they can confer. Sets of bonus questions are thematically linked, although, apart from Picture and Music bonus questions, they rarely share a connection with the preceding starter question. Generally, there are three separate bonus questions worth 5 points each, but occasionally a bonus will require the enumeration of a given list with 5, 10 or 15 points given for correctly giving a certain number of items from the list (e.g., "there are seven fundamental SI units. Give 5 for 5 points, 6 for 10 points or all 7 for 15 points"). An incorrect interruption of a starter results in a 5-point penalty.

It is the team captain's responsibility to give the answer to the bonus questions unless another member of the team is specified with the phrase "Nominate [name]". The team member so named may then give the answer instead.

In the course of a game there are two picture rounds (occurring roughly one quarter and three quarters of the way through) and one music round (at the halfway point), where the subsequent bonuses are connected thematically to the starter; if a picture or music starter is not correctly answered, the accompanying bonus questions are held back until a normal starter is correctly answered. Usually, in the recent contests, the first picture round focuses on science and technology, geography and languages, while the second picture round centres about art, film, television and literature. The 2010 Manchester University team included a visually impaired student, Rachael Neiman, and the picture rounds in episodes involving the team were word puzzles for which she was provided with Braille transcriptions.^[27] Pieces of music played for the music round may be classical or popular – for example, on 25 July 2011, the pieces played were winners of the Eurovision Song Contest. Occasionally, audio clips other than music (e.g. speech, animal sounds or other field recordings) are used.

The pace of questioning gradually increases through the show, becoming almost frantic in the last minute or so before the "gong", which signals the end of the game. At this point, the game immediately ends, even if Paxman is halfway through asking a question. In the event of a tied score at the sound of the gong, a "sudden death" question is asked, the first team to answer correctly being deemed the winner; this is repeated until one or other of the teams answers correctly, or a team loses by giving an incorrect interruption. The ending of the programme is usually signified with Jeremy Paxman saying "It's goodbye from (name of losing team, who wave and say goodbye), it's goodbye from (winning team, likewise), and it's goodbye from me: goodbye!" However, in the final episode of the seasons, Jeremy Paxman ends the show with "It's goodbye from (name of the season's winner, who wave and say goodbye), and it's goodbye from me: goodbye!"

Production

While the starter questions are being read out, the teams are shown on screen one above the other by means of a split-screen effect. When a player buzzes in, the shot zooms in to that player, accompanied by a voiceover identifying the player by team and surname, for example "Nottingham, Smith". The voiceovers are performed live in the studio by Roger Tilling and become noticeably more energetic towards the end of the programme. The 1985 series experimented with an actual two-tier set, which was discontinued the following year.

Notable contestants

Notable contestants in the regular student competition. Special Celebrity Christmas editions, where all competitors are distinguished, are excluded.

David Aaronovitch – Victoria University of Manchester, 1975 Tim Boswell – New College, Oxford Daisy Christodoulou - University of Warwick, 2007 Sebastian Faulks – Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1972 Julian Fellowes – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1969 Stephen Fry – Queens' College, Cambridge, 1980 Christopher Hitchens – Balliol College, Oxford[28] Clive James – Pembroke College, Cambridge Kwasi Kwarteng – Trinity College, Cambridge, 1995 David Lidington – Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1978

Miriam Margolyes – Newnham College, Cambridge, 1963 David Mellor – Christ's College, Cambridge Charles Moore – Trinity College, Cambridge, 1978 Malcolm Rifkind – University of Edinburgh, 1967 John Sessions – reserve for UCNW Bangor, 1973 John Simpson – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1964 David Starkey – Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge June Tabor – St Hugh's College, Oxford, 1968 Gail Trimble – Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2009 The Wizard of New Zealand (Ian Brackenbury Channel) – University of Leeds, 1963[29]

Winners

The University of Manchester and Magdalen College, Oxford, have the highest number of wins, with four each, and are also the only ones to successfully defend the title the year after their win. Trinity College, Cambridge, holds three titles, and a further seven colleges have two titles: Durham, Sussex, Open University, Imperial College (London), Sidney Sussex (Cambridge), Keble (Oxford), and University College (Oxford).

Original series Year Winners Runners-up 1963 Leicester Balliol College, Oxford 1965 New College, Oxford 1966 Oriel College, Oxford 1967 Sussex King's College, London 1968 Keele Jesus College, Cambridge 1969 Sussex (2) Essex 1970 Churchill College, Cambridge Christ's College, Cambridge 1971 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Trinity College, Oxford 1972 University College, Oxford Keble College, Oxford 1973 Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1974 Trinity College, Cambridge Balliol College, Oxford 1975 Keble College, Oxford 1976 University College, Oxford (2) 1977 University of Durham New College, Oxford 1978 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (2) Dundee 1979 University of Bradford Lancaster 1980 Merton College, Oxford Queens' College, Cambridge 1981 Queen's University of Belfast University of Edinburgh 1982 University of St Andrews University College, Oxford 1983 Dundee University of Durham 1984 The Open University University of St Andrews 1986 Jesus College, Oxford Imperial College London 1987 Keble College, Oxford (2) University College, Oxford Information in this table was obtained from University Challenge Series Champions. Sean Blanchflower. Retrieved 26 February 2008..

New series Year Winners Runners-up 1995 Trinity College, Cambridge (2) New College, Oxford 1996 Imperial College London London School of Economics 1997 Magdalen College, Oxford The Open University 1998 Magdalen College, Oxford (2) Birkbeck, University of London 1999 The Open University (2) Oriel College, Oxford 2000 University of Durham (2) Oriel College, Oxford 2001 Imperial College London (2) St John's College, Oxford 2002 Somerville College, Oxford Imperial College London 2003 Birkbeck, University of London Cranfield University 2004 Magdalen College, Oxford (3) Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 2005 Corpus Christi, Oxford University College London 2006 University of Manchester Trinity Hall, Cambridge 2007 University of Warwick University of Manchester 2008 Christ Church, Oxford University of Sheffield 2009 Corpus Christi, Oxford (Disqualified) University of Manchester (2) 2010 Emmanuel College, Cambridge St. John's College, Oxford 2011 Magdalen College, Oxford (4) University of York 2012 University of Manchester (3) Pembroke College, Cambridge 2013 University of Manchester (4) University College London 2014 Trinity College, Cambridge (3) Somerville College, Oxford 2015 Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Magdalen College, Oxford 2016 Peterhouse, Cambridge St John's College, Oxford

Most series wins Rank University/College Number of wins Win year(s) 1= Magdalen College, Oxford 4 1997, 1998, 2004, 2011 University of Manchester 4 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013 3 Trinity College, Cambridge 3 1974, 1995, 2014 4= University of Sussex 2 1967, 1969 University College, Oxford 2 1972, 1976 Keble College, Oxford 2 1975, 1987 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge 2 1971, 1978 The Open University 2 1984, 1999 Durham University 2 1977, 2000 Imperial College London 2 1996, 2001

Lowest scores

Not much is known about the lowest scores from the Bamber Gascoigne series, except that the lowest score ever was amassed in 1971-2, when a Sussex team, fresh from two series wins, managed only 10 points.^[30] This is also the lowest score ever achieved on the programme. However, a low score was also achieved by Victoria University of Manchester in their first round match in 1975 when for much of the recording they answered only with the names of Marxists as a protest against the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges being able to enter separate teams.^[31]

Under quizmaster Jeremy Paxman, a low score of 15 was achieved by the University of Exeter in a quarter-final against Corpus Christi, Oxford, whose team captain Gail Trimble amassed 15 correct starter questions. However, the Corpus Christi team were later disqualified from the competition after it was found that team member Sam Kay had been ineligible for the last three matches.^[32] Therefore, the lowest score officially achieved against eligible opponents under quizmaster Jeremy Paxman was by Lincoln College, Oxford, who totalled 30 in a semi-final against the eventual series champions the University of Manchester, in an episode televised on 9 February 2009. This was also matched in the grand final by St John's College, Oxford against Peterhouse, Cambridge on 18 April 2016.

Before these matches, the lowest score was 35, reached by New Hall, Cambridge, 1997.^[33] This score would have been lower if all fines for incorrect interruptions had been applied.^[34]

The lowest score during the Professionals series was achieved by the House of Commons team, who scored 25 in 2003. In the 2014 Christmas University Challenge series, a team of alumni from Newcastle University also finished with 25.

Highest scores

University College, Oxford scored 520 points in the final ITV season in 1987.^[35]

Specials

Year	Special Event	Winners	Runners Up
1984	1984 Christmas special
1986	International best of three series	Great Britain (Jesus College, Oxford, 1985)	New Zealand (University of Auckland, 1985)
1987	International best of three series	Great Britain (Keble College, Oxford, 1986)	New Zealand (University of Otago, 1986)
1992	Celebrity match	Celebrity Past Contestants (Alastair Little, John Simpson, Stephen Fry, Charles Moore)	Keble College, Oxford (A team of current students from the college, as they were the "defending champions", having won the last series of the show, back in 1987.)
1997	College Bowl Challenge	University of Michigan	Imperial College London, 1996
1997	Mastermind Challenge	Magdalen College, Oxford, 1997	The last 4 Mastermind finallists from the Magnus Magnusson era: Claire Ockwell, Andrea Weston, Colin Cadby (Captain) and Anne Ashurst (series champion)
1998	College Bowl Challenge	USA	UK
1998	Champions' Challenge	Magdalen College, Oxford, 1997	Imperial College London, 1996
1998	Universe Challenge	Red Dwarf Fans: (Darryl Ball, Kaley Nichols, Steve Rogers [Chairman of the Official Red Dwarf Fan Club], Pip Swallow, Sharon Burnett [Co-author of The Red Dwarf Quiz Book])	Red Dwarf Cast: (Robert Llewellyn, Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie, Chloë Annett, Craig Charles)
1999	Journalists Special	Tabloids	Broadsheets
1999	Challenge	Magdalen College, Oxford, 1998	Leicester, 1963
2002	University Challenge: Reunited	Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1979	Keele, 1968
2003	University Challenge: The Professionals	The Inland Revenue	Royal Meteorological Society
2003	Comic Relief match	The Townies: (Jeremy Beadle, Danny Baker, Johnny Vaughan, Gina Yashere)	The Gownies: (David Baddiel, Frank Skinner, Stephen Fry, Clive Anderson)
2004	International "Grand Final": UK vs India	Sardar Patel College of Engineering (SPCE), Mumbai: (Nirad Inamdar, Bharat Jayakumar, Nishad Manerikar, Shrijit Plappally)	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge: (Laura Ashe, Darren Khodaverdi, Lameen Souag, Edward Wallace)
2004	University Challenge: The Professionals	British Library	Oxford University Press
2004	Christmas Special 1	Television (Monty Don, Martha Kearney, Andrew Neil, Clare Balding)	Radio (Henry Blofeld, Jenni Murray, Ned Sherrin, Roger Bolton)
	Christmas Special 2	Critics (Waldemar Januszczak, Russell Davies, Brian Sewell, Andrew Graham-Dixon)	Theatre
	Christmas Specials: Final	Critics	Television
2005	Comic Relief 2005 Match	The South (Sarah Alexander, Hugh Grant, Stephen Fry, Omid Djalili)	The North (Colin Murray, John Thomson, Armando Iannucci, Neil Morrissey)
2005	University Challenge: The Professionals	Privy Council Office	Romantic Novelists' Association
2006	University Challenge: The Professionals	Bodleian Library	Royal Statistical Society
2008	University Challenge: The Professionals	Ministry of Justice	National Physical Laboratory
2011	Christmas University Challenge	Trinity College, Cambridge (Robin Bhattachryya, Daisy Goodwin, John Lloyd, Edward Stourton)	University of Warwick (Vadim Jean, Daisy Christodoulou, Christian Wolmar, Carla Mendonça)
2012	Christmas University Challenge	New College, Oxford (Rachel Johnson, Patrick Gale, Kate Mosse, Yan Wong)	University of East Anglia (John Boyne, Razia Iqbal, David Grossman, Charlie Higson)
2013	Christmas University Challenge	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Helen Castor, Mark Damazer, Lars Tharp)	Emmanuel College, Cambridge (Hugo Rifkind, Mary-Ann Ochota, Simon Singh, Rory McGrath)
2014	Champion of Champions	University of Manchester (Henry Pertinez, Gareth Aubrey, Tristan Burke, Adam Barr)	Magdalen College, Oxford (Matthew Chan, Freya McClements, Jim Adams, Sarah Healey)
2014	Christmas University Challenge	Trinity Hall, Cambridge (Tom James, Emma Pooley, Adam Mars-Jones, Dan Starkey)	University of Hull (Rosie Millard, Malcolm Sinclair, Jenni Murray, Stan Cullimore)
2015	Christmas University Challenge	Magdalen College, Oxford (Robin Lane Fox, Heather Berlin, Louis Theroux, Matt Ridley)	University of Sheffield (Sid Lowe, Nicci Gerrard, Adam Hart, Ruth Reed)

Some information from this table was obtained from the web pages listed in "Special Series". Sean Blanchflower. Retrieved 26 February 2008.

Transmissions

ITV series Series Start date End date Episodes 1 21 September 1962 ?? ?? 2 ?? ?? ?? 3 ?? ?? ?? 4 ?? ?? ?? 5 ?? ?? ?? 6 ?? ?? ?? 7 ?? ?? ?? 8 ?? ?? ?? 9 ?? ?? ?? 10 ?? ?? ?? 11 ?? ?? ?? 12 ?? ?? ?? 13 ?? ?? ?? 14 ?? ?? ?? 15 ?? ?? ?? 16 ?? ?? ?? 17 ?? ?? ?? 18 ?? ?? ?? 19 ?? ?? ?? 20 ?? ?? ?? 21 ?? 21 December 1984 ?? 22 7 April 1986 30 May 1986 40 23 13 July 1987 4 September 1987 40

BBC series Series Start date End date Episodes 24 21 September 1994 29 March 1995 27 25 1 November 1995 1 May 1996 27 26 12 November 1996 4 June 1997 27 27 10 September 1997 21 April 1998 27 28 2 September 1998 27 April 1999 31 29 13 September 1999 9 May 2000 31 30 4 September 2000 2 April 2001 31 31 23 July 2001 11 March 2002 31 32 2 September 2002 31 March 2003 31 33 15 September 2003 12 April 2004 31 34 13 September 2004 9 May 2005 31 35 19 September 2005 15 May 2006 31 36 7 August 2006 16 April 2007 31 37 9 July 2007 3 March 2008 31 38 7 July 2008 23 February 2009 31 39 6 July 2009 5 April 2010 37 40 5 July 2010 4 April 2011 37 41 4 July 2011 19 March 2012 37 42 16 July 2012 29 April 2013 37 43 15 July 2013 7 April 2014 37 44 14 July 2014 13 April 2015 37 45 13 July 2015 18 April 2016 37 46 11 July 2016 2017 37

Spin-off shows

The producers of the programme have taken the more recent inclusion of mature students to its logical conclusion by making two series without any student participants: University Challenge Reunited (2002) brought former teams back together, while University Challenge: The Professionals (from 2003) matched occupational groups such as civil servants, architects and doctors against each other. In 2003, the former was won by the 1979 team from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, the latter by a team from the Inland Revenue. The 2004 Professionals series was won by the British Library, and the 2005 series by the Privy Council Office. In 2006, Professionals was won by staff of the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford.

The show has seen numerous specials, including those for specific professions and celebrity editions, such as Universe Challenge, presented by former host and Red Dwarf fan, Bamber Gascoine, where the cast of Red Dwarf challenged a team of their "ultimate fans" to celebrate Red Dwarf's 10th anniversary on the air. The cast was Chris Barrie (captain), Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, Chloë Annett and Craig Charles. The cast, who at times seemed amazed at the fans' knowledge, lost, but by only 15 points, 280–295.

Similar programmes

Sixth Form Challenge, hosted by Chris Kelly, appeared briefly between 1965 and 1967. The sixth form contestants represented leading public schools and grammar schools. An untelevised version, Schools' Challenge, continues to run at junior and senior secondary school levels.

Other countries

University Challenge ran in New Zealand for 14 seasons, from 1976 until 1989, with international series held between the previous years' British and New Zealand champions in both 1986 and 1987. It was hosted by Peter Sinclair. The series was revived in 2014 with Tom Conroy as host.

University Challenge, hosted by Dr. Magnus Clarke, ran in Australia on the ABC from 1987 until 1989. In the 1988 series, the University of New South Wales defeated the University of Melbourne in the final by 245 points to 175.^[36]

University Challenge India started in summer 2003, with the season culminating in the finals of March 2004 where Sardar Patel College of Engineering (SPCE), Mumbai, beat Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The 2004–2005 season finale saw a team of undergraduate engineering students from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), Delhi, beat a team of management students from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode. The Indian winners of the 2003–2004 season went on to beat the finalists from the UK show, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. UC India is produced by BBC World India, and Synergy Communications, co-owned by Siddhartha Basu, who also hosted the show.^[37]

Notes

1. This figures included all episodes from both the ITV and BBC series, as well as the 2002 Reunited series and all special episodes. The figures does not include the spin-off University Challenge: The Professionals.
2. "Richard Reid Productions". University Challenge. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
3. See Don't ever change, University Challenge by Harry Mount, the Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2014.
4. Taylor, Paul (12 September 2012). "Made in Manchester: University Challenge celebrates 50 years on our screens". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
5. Mark Damazer (presenter); Jo Meek (producer). "Your Starter for Ten: 50 Years of University Challenge". BBC ("Radio 4 Extra"). Retrieved 24 April 2016.
6. Gallagher, Paul (21 June 2009). "BBC tightens University Challenge rules in response to fiasco". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
7. "'University Challenge' Won By Manchester Team for Third Time". Huffington Post. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
8. Nicole Martin (17 December 2007) [14 December 2007]. "University Challenge 'needs upper age limit' [print version: Your starter for 10: how old are these students?]". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 14.
9. Paxman Slams 'Quiz Professionals'. BBC News. 5 June 1999.
10. "How Lance Left Paxman at a Loss for Words" – Mensa Magazine, August, 1999
11. Michael Rosser (2009-03-02). "University Challenge winners dethroned". Broadcast.
12. "BBC in University Challenge probe". BBC. 1 March 2009. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
13. Brian Ferguson (3 March 2009). "University Challenge winners stripped of title – for having zero common sense". The Scotsman. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
14. "University Challenge: a joint statement from the BBC and Granada". BBC Press Office (Press release). BBC. 2 March 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
15. "University quiz hit by new claims". BBC. 4 March 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
16. Holmwood, Leigh (3 March 2009). "Previous University Challenge winners appear to break rules". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
17. "Scholar tops university quiz". BBC. 13 April 2004. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
18. Lambert, Laura; Hughes, Tammy (3 October 2016), "Come on, just answer the question! Jeremy Paxman reveals parts of University Challenge are edited out when students continue to give a run of wrong answers", Daily Mail, retrieved 3 October 2016
19. Jess Denham. "Rik Mayall death anniversary: Funniest moments from Blackadder to The Young Ones | Features | Culture". The Independent. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
20. Universe Challenge (1998) at the Internet Movie Database
21. deadmonger (11 Apr 2011) [12 Feb 2013]. "The BFI TV 100 (2000) – a list". IMDb. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
23. Bradley, Wendy. "I'm gutted about University Challenge. And it's got nothing to do with Paxman". Retrieved 25 March 2015.
24. "Most Appearances (1994–2015)". University Challenge Fansite. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
25. "Appearances, 1995–2015". University Challenge Fansite. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
26. On University Challenge (Illustrated). Jacob Funnell. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
27. Bentley, Paul; Kathryn Faulkner (4 February 2010). "Blind Rachael's new Challenge". South Manchester Reporter. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
28. Blake Morrison I contain multitudes, The Guardian, 29 May 2010
29. Granada TV's "University Challenge" 1962/3 on YouTube
30. "University Challenge – Lowest Scores". Sean Blanchflower. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
31. Paul Gallagher. "BBC tightens University Challenge rules in response to fiasco | Television & radio". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
32. Holmwood, Leigh (2009-03-02). Gail Trimble's Corpus Christi stripped of University Challenge title. London: The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
33. University Challenge – lowest scores. Sean Blanchflower. Retrieved 26 February 2008.
34. On the TV programme The 100 Most Embarrassing TV Moments Ever, the New Hall performance was repeated and a member of the team said that they stopped losing points.
35. University Challenge – Highest Scores
36. University Challenge Australian Grand Final 1988 NSW v Melbourne Part 1 on YouTube
37. "Siddhartha Basu: The quizmaster on his latest programme on BBC, the University Challenge (UC)". Outlook (magazine). 18 August 2003.

External links

• Southampton 'University Challenge' team interview – a rare insight into the personalities of a University Challenge team
• University Challenge at BBC Programmes
  
• Sean Blanchflower's University Challenge pages
• University Challenge, with photograph of the highest-ever scoring team, from University College, Oxford, in the 1987 final against Keble College, Oxford at UKGameshows.com
• A full, illustrated behind-the-scenes account of the matches of the lowest-ever scoring team in the Paxman-era, by an Exeter contestant
• University Challenge India – a tribute
• Interview with the winning 2007 University of Warwick team
• University Challenge at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC Tightens University Challenge Rules in Response to Fiasco