There was a time when quiz shows were about knowing who composed the 1812 Overture, which EU capital city is the most southerly and who scored the winner in the last FA Cup final to be held at the old Wembley.
Lately, however, you have to be able to bend your brain in a different manner under the glare of the TV lights. For example, what is the lowest number to have the same value as 10 times the number of letters in its name?
The above question was posed during the latest series of The 1% Club, the ITV quiz presented by comedian Lee Mack now into its fourth series, which becomes progressively more difficult as its rounds progress.
Its success follows a trend for TV brainteasers and lateral thinking, including the BBC’s devilishly hard Only Connect, which completed its 20th series last month. Richard Osman’s House of Games, meanwhile, weaves general knowledge with logic puzzles.
According to quizzing experts, the trend comes from the enjoyable process of logic puzzles, which avoid the black-or-white nature of knowing a piece of trivia. “TV quizzes featuring brain teaser puzzles certainly seem to be experiencing something of a surge in popularity at the moment – and long may it continue,” said Robert Dean, who produced 20 series of Eggheads and has written thousands of questions for shows including The 1% Club. He added that setters also enjoyed the challenge of working on puzzle-based questions.
“A show like 1% Club can be played by anyone of pretty much any age as it requires little to no knowledge. That was at the heart of why it was commissioned: to create a quiz that anyone can play,” he said.
Jane Allen, the managing director of the British Quizzing Association and a regular question setter for TV, radio and newspapers, said: “With brain teasers, you can put all the pieces together. It’s just not quite as all or nothing.”
Dean said that the culture of social media may have played a part in the teaser trend, where timelines are often punctuated with attention-grabbing challenges. “I think that has played a part, certainly in the creation of The 1% Club,” he said. “What provided some of the inspiration for the idea were the puzzles that pop up from time to time on social media.”
TV producers are also inspired by the success of shows such as Only Connect. “Once one thing works well for somebody, others try to do something similar, but slightly different,” said Allen. “It also translates into socials. It translates into apps. So, I’m not surprised to see a rise in this sort of format.”
Similar puzzles are also helping to power subscriptions at media organisations, with the New York Times placing word logic games such as Wordle, Strands and Connections front and centre on its app.
Jonathan Knight, head of games at the New York Times, said puzzles created a shared endeavour for players of all experience and standards. “We make daily puzzles where the solution is the same, whether you started playing Wordle this week, or whether you started playing two years ago,” he added.
He said: “We have a very successful news quiz, but the reason it’s not part of NYT Games is because it’s just a test of knowledge. In a bunch of our games, you should be able to work them out, even if you don’t know all of the solutions.”
There could be further to take the idea. Knight said the New York Times was already thinking about a new puzzle that dispensed with words altogether. “One in particular we’re testing right now is a new logic puzzle and it’s not language-based at all,” he said. “We’re interested in logic puzzles right now that don’t require that you have a mastery of language in any way.”
Dean said that there was clearly potential for a quizzing mash-up with reality TV. “Reality shows like The Traitors are immensely popular at the moment, so I don’t think it will be long until we see a show that’s a reality/quiz crossover. I think it’s refreshing as well to see that quizshows are becoming accessible to as many people as possible.”
But for those who still enjoy the pure knowledge recall of the pub quiz, fear not. Dean, Knight and Allen all saw a permanent place for trivia-based tests, with shows such as Jeopardy! and Mastermind enduring. Knight’s team is thinking about novel formats, while Allen said it only took a fresh twist to inspire a new type of trivia-based show.
“If somebody stumbles across a format that just works for whatever reason, you’ll see every channel desperately trying to find a similar idea,” she said. “At the moment, I’m seeing a lot of short-form, app-based things. People like quick wins, especially when you start to look at generation Alpha and generation Z. They’re not watching TV in the same way. There is huge amounts of innovation in all technology at the moment.”
And for those wondering, Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture, the most southerly EU capital is Nicosia, Cyprus, and the last FA Cup final goal at the old Wembley was scored by Chelsea’s Roberto Di Matteo. As for the opening brain teaser, the answer is 50 – because “fifty” has five letters, and five times 10 is 50.
Can you answers these traditional quiz questions from days gone by?
By Matthew Weaver
University Challenge, 1962:
1 Who was the first heir to the English throne to have the title the Prince of Wales?
2 What is the name of the first English daily newspaper?
Ask the Family, 1978:
3 Which bird appeared on the farthing from 1937-56?
4 Who escaped from the Staats Model School in Pretoria?
Bullseye, 1981:
5 What is the famous pass between India and Afghanistan?
6 What is the name of a triangle with two equal sides in length?
The Krypton Factor, 1988:
7 How many sharps are in the key of G major?
8 Which Nobel Peace prize winner was assassinated at a military parade in Egypt?
Fifteen to One, 1988:
9 What does a binnacle protect on a ship?
10 Who invented dynamite?
Mastermind, 1990:
11 What name is given to a fruit cake covered with marzipan traditionally associated with Easter?
12 What is the common name of the wild flower Primula veris?
Answers
1 Edward II
2 The Daily Courant
3 Wren
4 Winston Churchill
5 Khyber Pass
6 Isosceles triangle
7 One
8 Anwar Sadat
9 The compass
10 Alfred Nobel
11 Simnel cake
12 Cowslip
