# Hard Quiz Kids

Hard Quiz Kids is an Australian television comedy children's quiz show which premiered on ABC Family on 8 June 2024. Hosted by Tom Gleeson, the show is a spin-off of the quiz show Hard Quiz, also hosted by Gleeson. It is filmed at the ABC Melbourne studios in Southbank in front of a studio audience. Contestants are aged from 10 to 13 years old, although some 14-year-olds participated.

## Format

Each episode of Hard Quiz Kids features four contestants, each of whom has selected a specialist subject area. No subject area (including those selected in "Tom's Round") may be used more than once. Each correct answer is worth 5 points, while each wrong answer costs 5 points.

### Expert Round

The contestants, in turn, each receive five questions regarding their specialist subject areas. They must buzz in to respond and are locked out of a question if they got it wrong or took too long to give an answer, giving the other players a chance to answer. A contestant may attempt to answer a question from another contestant's subject area. This is known as "The Steal". If a Steal is successful, the contestant receives 10 points but will only lose 5 points for an incorrect Steal attempt.

### Tom's Round

The contestants, using their monitors, lock in their answers to each of the five multiple-choice questions from a subject Gleeson has chosen in advance. A selected response must be locked in by pressing the red buzzer. Each question has 4 options except for the last question, which has 6 options and is played for double points (10 points for a right answer). The lowest scorer at the end of this round is out of the game, with their podium now displaying the words "Too Soft".

### The People's Round (Against the Clock)

In this round, general knowledge questions are given out for a rather vague time limit (between 35 and over 90 seconds, depending on the episode). The contestants, again, buzz in to respond. The lowest scorer when time expires is also out of the game.

### Tiebreaker: Hard-Off

In the event of a tie for lowest scorer when an elimination is required, the tie is broken with a "hard-off", where Gleeson presents two options for a given question (often pertaining to the relative difficulty of two given tasks or physical hardness of two materials), which the first contestant to buzz in then answers. If the answering contestant chooses correctly, the other contestant is eliminated and vice versa if the answer given is incorrect.
When more than two contestants play a hard-off, multiple questions can be played. If a contestant answers correctly, they are safe from elimination and the hard-off continues until only one contestant is not safe. If a contestant answers incorrectly, they are eliminated and all other contestant in the hard-off become safe.

### Final round: Hard Quiz (Head to Head)

The final two contestants alternate answering questions regarding their chosen subject area in a best of five penalty shootout-style format with the winner receiving a trophy – the limited-edition big brass mug, or in the case of the "Battle of The Duds" episodes, the aforementioned big brass mug with a hole in the bottom. The contestant also gets to sign off the show with the catchphrase "Thanks for playing, hard."
If the final two contestants have got the same amount of correct answers after five questions, an extra question will be asked to each contestant on their specialty subject.

#### Tom's Tiebreaker

After the extra questions and if the players are still tied, one numerical question will be asked on Tom's specialty subject of the day. Each contestant will be required to guess the correct answer, starting with the player that got the first question during the final round, and the closer of the two wins the show.

## Series overview

| Series | Episodes | Episodes | Originally released | Originally released |
| Series | Episodes | Episodes | First released | Last released |
| 1 | 10 | 10 | 8 June 2024 (2024-06-08) | 10 August 2024 (2024-08-10) |

## Episodes
### Series 1

Names in Bold are the winners
| No. | Title | Original release date | Australian viewers |
| 1 | "Episode 1" | 8 June 2024 (2024-06-08) | N/A |
| Contestants: Aston - Birds of prey expert Callista - Greek Mythology expert Toby - Minecraft expert Pippa - wives of Henry VIII expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Grown-ups ||||
| 2 | "Episode 2" | 15 June 2024 (2024-06-15) | N/A |
| Contestants: Toby - Hamilton expert Gretta - Leadbeater's possums expert Thomas - Caterpillar earthmovers expert Emma - Seinfeld expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Telephones ||||
| 3 | "Episode 3" | 22 June 2024 (2024-06-22) | N/A |
| Contestants: Olivia - Sam Kerr expert Paris - Babushka dolls expert Leela - 80s Aussie rock bands expert Xavier - The Lego Batman Movie expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Real estate ||||
| 4 | "Episode 4" | 29 June 2024 (2024-06-29) | N/A |
| Contestants: Max - Capital Cities expert Ayesha - Hello Kitty expert Rav - Aviation Disasters expert Connor - The Wizard of Oz expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Jumping ||||
| 5 | "Episode 5" | 6 July 2024 (2024-07-06) | N/A |
| Contestants: Sam - Flags expert Aisha - Taylor Swift expert Casey - Fire Rescue Victoria expert Matilda - Wings of Fire expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Theme Parks ||||
| 6 | "Episode 6" | 13 July 2024 (2024-07-13) | N/A |
| Contestants: Jimmy - Saltwater crocodiles expert Milly - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom expert Max - World War II expert Josie - The Loud House expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Chips ||||
| 7 | "Episode 7" | 20 July 2024 (2024-07-20) | N/A |
| Contestants: Shahbaaz - Guru Nanak Dev Ji expert Layla - The Norris Nuts expert Fleur - Mean Girls The Musical expert Eitan - Mickey Mouse expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Astrophysics ||||
| 8 | "Episode 8" | 27 July 2024 (2024-07-27) | N/A |
| Contestants: Khean - Anne Frank expert Aaradhya - Space Travel expert Imogen - Microraptor expert Heath - Puffing Billy Railway expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Philosophy ||||
| 9 | "Episode 9" | 3 August 2024 (2024-08-03) | N/A |
| Contestants: Bridget - H$_2$O: Just Add Water expert Shani - Quokkas expert Hugo - Taj Mahal expert Ollie - The Beatles expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Dessert ||||
| 10 | "Episode 10" | 10 August 2024 (2024-08-10) | N/A |
| Contestants: Quinn - Kraftwerk expert George - Ants expert Riham - Lego Ninjago expert Thea - Percy Jackson expert Tom's round: Tom's subject – Driving ||||

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
| 2025 | 14th AACTA Awards | Best Children's Series | Hard Quiz Kids | Nominated | |