University Challenge (UK TV series)

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

Teams consist of four members and most represent a single university. The exceptions to this are colleges of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, 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. Durham University has appeared most frequently in the post-1994 format, though Oxford, Cambridge and London have had colleges representing the universities in every series.

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.

"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 (during the Gascoigne era, this took the form of 5 points awarded to the opposing team; currently, 5 points are deducted from the interrupting team).

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 pace of questioning gradually increases through the show, becoming almost frantic in the last minute or so before the sound of a 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!"

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

* David Aaronovitch – Victoria University of Manchester, 1975
* Sebastian Faulks – Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1972
* Julian Fellowes – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1969
* Stephen Fry – Queens' College, Cambridge, 1980
* Clive James – Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1968
* Mark Labbett – Exeter College, Oxford
* Miriam Margolyes – Newnham College, Cambridge, 1963
* David Mellor – Christ's College, Cambridge
* Malcolm Rifkind – University of Edinburgh, 1967
* John Sessions – reserve for UCNW Bangor, 1973
* John Simpson – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1964
* David Starkey – Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

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, hold three titles, and a further seven institutions have two titles: Durham, Sussex, the Open University, Imperial College London, Sidney Sussex (Cambridge), Keble (Oxford), and University College (Oxford).