University Challenge#Spin-off shows

Despite periodic changes to the sets, studio layout, and presentation, University Challenge has preserved a high level of continuity from 1962 to the present. Some commentators have cited this as an essential element of its success.See [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10748721/Dont-ever-change-University-Challenge.html Don't ever change, University Challenge] by Harry Mount, the Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2014. Elements of this continuity include:

• The longevity of its quizmasters, with only three presenters in the programme's history;
• The split-screen presentation during the starter question phase, which appears to place one team physically above the other. In the final years of the original Bamber Gascoigne era, the studio set genuinely was two-tiered, although the split-screen effect returned for the revived series and has been used ever since;
• Long serving voiceover announcers, with only three in the programme's history – Don Murray-Henderson from 1962 until his death in 1971, then Jim Pope until his death in 2001, then Roger Tilling. Tilling's delivery typically becomes increasingly high-pitched as the episode progresses;{{youTube|HjFENtIZCjM|Roger Tilling Interview BBC Breakfast April 2017}}
• The theme tune "College Boy" by Derek New, which has been with the series since the 1960s (although the first series used "Ting A Ling" by Duke Ellington).{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3wF_vf1JDI|title=University Challenge Intros – 1962–2022 (UK, NZ & Aus)|publisher=University Challenge|date=26 Jan 2022|accessdate=21 August 2023}} "College Boy" was originally scored for an ensemble of tubular bells, flugelhorn, harpsichord, brushed hi-hat, bass drum and double bass. The original theme returned for the early Paxman-era episodes and was later replaced by a string quartet arrangement of the theme recorded by the Balanescu Quartet.

File:Bamber Gascoigne.JPG hosted the original series of University Challenge from 1962 to 1987 and the 1992 Granadaland special.]]

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.{{Cite news |title=Made in Manchester: University Challenge celebrates 50 years on our screens |last=Taylor |first=Paul |url=http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/tv_and_showbiz/s/1588567_made-in-manchester-university-challenge-celebrates-50-years-on-our-screens |newspaper=Manchester Evening News |date=12 September 2012 |access-date=12 September 2012 |archive-date=19 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019041342/http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/tv_and_showbiz/s/1588567_made-in-manchester-university-challenge-celebrates-50-years-on-our-screens |url-status=dead }} From its inception in 1962, University Challenge was hosted by Bamber Gascoigne, who died in 2022. The programme's first match was a match between the University of Leeds (featuring a pre-famed Ian Channell, better known as The Wizard of New Zealand) and the University of Reading.{{Cite web |title=University Challenge – 1963 |url=https://blanchflower.org/uc/uc63.html |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=blanchflower.org}} The show was a cult favourite with a small but loyal core audience, and was one of a select few ITV programmes that was 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, with some broadcasting the show during daytime, at weekends or 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. LWT stopped broadcasting the show in October 1983, with Thames following suit shortly afterwards.The Times (London, England), Wednesday, 12 Oct 1983; pg. 14; Thames resumed screening the series in 1984 however they only screened the Quarter-finals To the final in December 1984, when it was networked for the first time.

The programme was not broadcast in 1985 and returned in April 1986, when it continued to networked by ITV and broadcast at 15:00 on weekdays. 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 networked, but broadcast around 11:00 during the summer holiday period. Even so, the new networked time did little to save the series from the axe. The last ITV series was broadcast in 1987.

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge could each enter up to five of their constituent colleges as separate teams, 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 a 1975 protest, in which a team from the 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", in the hope of making the resulting show unbroadcastable.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m49vh|title=Your Starter for Ten: 50 Years of University Challenge|author1=Mark Damazer (presenter)|author2=Jo Meek (producer)|publisher=BBC ("Radio 4 Extra")|access-date=24 April 2016}}{{Cite news |title=BBC tightens University Challenge rules in response to fiasco |last=Gallagher |first=Paul |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/21/university-challenge-rules-television |newspaper=The Guardian |date=21 June 2009 |access-date=6 January 2012}}

It was, however, broadcast, although only portions of the episode still exist in the Granada Television archives. Granada subsequently banned the University of Manchester for several years.{{Cite news |title='University Challenge' Won By Manchester Team for Third Time |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/03/19/university-challenge-won-manchester_n_1364276.html |work=HuffPost|date=19 March 2012 |access-date=19 March 2012}}

File:Jeremy Paxman at the Forward Prizes judging meeting 2014 (cropped).jpg hosted University Challenge from 1994 to 2023 and its Christmas spin-off from 2011 to 2022.]]

File:Angus Deayton.jpg hosted the 2003 and 2005 Comic Relief editions of University Challenge.]]

File:Secret Comedy Podcast - 3 August 2013 - 11 (9430466386) (cropped).jpg hosted the 2019 Comic Relief edition of University Challenge.]]

File:Kirsty_wark_podium.jpg hosted the 2020 and 2021 Children in Need editions of University Challenge.]]

University Challenge was revived by the BBC in 1994, although still produced by Granada Television (branded since 2009 as ITV Studios), 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 by the BBC, as part of a themed evening of programmes dedicated to Granada Television. It was presented by Bamber Gascoigne and broadcast on BBC2 on 28 December 1992. The teams included one of students from Keble College, Oxford, which had fielded the winning team in the final 1987 season, and a graduates team of celebrity alumni who had previously appeared 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).

Paxman relinquished his role as host following the conclusion of the 52nd series in 2023, after which he was succeeded by Amol Rajan.{{Cite web |last=Minelle |first=Bethany |date=18 August 2022 |title=Amol Rajan replaces Jeremy Paxman as University Challenge host |url=https://news.sky.com/story/amol-rajan-replaces-jeremy-paxman-as-university-challenge-host-12675786 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818122123/https://news.sky.com/story/amol-rajan-replaces-jeremy-paxman-as-university-challenge-host-12675786 |archive-date=18 August 2022 |access-date=18 August 2022 |website=Sky News}} In October 2022, an ITV documentary, Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's, explored how Parkinson's disease has impacted him{{Cite web |last=MD |first=Peter Grinspoon |date=2018-08-24 |title=Cannabidiol (CBD): What we know and what we don't |url=https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/cannabidiol-cbd-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-2018082414476 |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=Harvard Health |language=en}} and revealed that Paxman recorded his last episode of University Challenge on 15 October 2022, which aired on 29 May 2023.{{Citation |title=Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's – Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's |url=https://www.itv.com/hub/paxman-putting-up-with-parkinsons/10a2082a0001 |language=en |access-date=2022-10-04}}{{Cite web |date=2022-10-04 |title=TV tonight: Jeremy Paxman on Parkinson's, dissecting brains and quitting University Challenge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/04/tv-tonight-jeremy-paxman-on-parkinsons-dissecting-brains-and-quitting-university-challenge |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

On 21 April 2023, the BBC unveiled a new set and title card, which debuted on Rajan's first episode, which aired on 17 July 2023.{{Cite web |title=First look images of new University Challenge set and host Amol Rajan |url=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/university-challenge-first-look-new-set-amol-rajan |access-date=2023-05-31 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}{{cite web |title=BBC Two – University Challenge, 2023/24, Trinity College, Cambridge v Manchester |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nxvc |website=BBC Online |access-date=5 July 2023}}

Since its revival in 1994, the programme has featured a number of teams of postgraduate and mature students, whose participation has been criticised.{{Cite news|author=Nicole Martin|title=University Challenge 'needs upper age limit' [print version: Your starter for 10: how old are these students?]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/14/nstudents114.xml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214211352/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2007%2F12%2F14%2Fnstudents114.xml|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 December 2007|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=17 December 2007|orig-year=14 December 2007|page=14|location=London|access-date=12 October 2021}} The Open University won the 1999 series with a team with an average age of 46. In the quarter-final, they narrowly beat a slightly younger team from part-time and mature student specialist Birkbeck, University of London. Birkbeck won the competition in 2003, also with a substantially mature team. Host Jeremy Paxman said that the Open University team was "not in the spirit" of the competition.{{Cite book|title=Paxman Slams 'Quiz Professionals'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/361491.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=5 June 1999}} 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"."How Lance Left Paxman at a Loss for Words" – Mensa Magazine, August, 1999

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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/university-challenge-winners-dethroned/2000957.article|title= University Challenge winners dethroned|publisher=Broadcast|author=Michael Rosser|date=2009-03-02}} Kay, who had completed a chemistry degree the previous summer, had been planning to go on to study for a Doctor of Philosophy, but dropped out as he did not have sufficient funding. He then became an accountant.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7917481.stm|title= BBC in University Challenge probe|publisher=BBC|date=1 March 2009|access-date=1 March 2009}} The team, whose captain Gail Trimble was dubbed the "human Google",{{cite news|url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/University-Challenge-winners--stripped.5030768.jp|title=University Challenge winners stripped of title – for having zero common sense|newspaper=The Scotsman|author=Brian Ferguson|date=3 March 2009|access-date=3 March 2009}} won the competition but was subsequently disqualified and the trophy awarded to the runners-up, the University of Manchester.{{cite press release | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/03_march/02/challenge.shtml | title = University Challenge: a joint statement from the BBC and Granada | date = 2 March 2009 | access-date = 2 March 2009 | work = BBC Press Office | publisher = BBC}}

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.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7922672.stm|title= University quiz hit by new claims|publisher=BBC|date=4 March 2009|access-date=4 March 2009}} 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.{{cite news|last=Holmwood|first=Leigh|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/03/university-challenge-winners-break-rules|title=Previous University Challenge winners appear to break rules|newspaper=The Guardian|date=3 March 2009|access-date=4 March 2009 | location=London}}{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3622739.stm|title=Scholar tops university quiz|publisher=BBC|date=13 April 2004|access-date=4 March 2009}}

In 2016, at the Henley Literary Festival, Jeremy Paxman said that, when students were unable to answer several consecutive starter questions, those questions were often deleted before the show is broadcast.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2016/oct/05/your-starter-for-10-is-university-challenge-cheating-us |title=Your starter for 10 – is University Challenge cheating us? |author= |date=5 October 2016 |work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125212620/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2016/oct/05/your-starter-for-10-is-university-challenge-cheating-us |url-status=live |archive-date=25 January 2021 |access-date=25 January 2021}}

• In an episode of the BBC comedy series Not the Nine O'Clock News, first broadcast on 15 December 1980, Griff Rhys Jones plays Bamber Gascoigne in a sketch that pitches two teams of criminals representing prisoners from Wormwood Scrubs and Parkhurst. The teams score "points" (remission of sentence) by "grassing" on possible suspects involved in a crime.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cys6q|title=BBC Two – Not the Nine O'Clock News, Series 3, Episode 8|website=BBC|access-date=13 February 2019}}
• In 1984 an episode of The Young Ones, entitled "Bambi" (a play on Bamber Gascoigne'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. The teams are arranged physically one above the other, in a parody of the show's split-screen format.{{cite news|author=Jess Denham |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/rik-mayall-dead-actor-and-comedians-funniest-moments-9515759.html |title=Rik Mayall death anniversary: Funniest moments from Blackadder to The Young Ones | Features | Culture |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=18 April 2016}}
• A quiz themed around BBC science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, broadcast in 1998, is entitled Universe Challenge. It opens as if it were a regular episode, but with Chris Barrie impersonating Jeremy Paxman. Gascoigne comes from behind with a blaster gun and blows him out of the chair to take over as host. This was Gascoigne's last appearance as host.{{IMDb title|469215|Universe Challenge (1998)}}
• 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.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000151593/ | title=The BFI TV 100 (2000) – a list | work=IMDb | date=11 April 2011 |orig-year= 12 February 2013 | access-date=9 November 2014 | author=deadmonger}}
• Starter For Ten is the title of a novel, first published in 2003, by British author David Nicholls. The plot is about a first-year student, Brian Jackson, who attempts to join his university team competing in University Challenge. Nicholls also adapted the novel into the film Starter for 10 in 2006, starring James McAvoy as Jackson, with Mark Gatiss portraying Gascoigne.
• In 2006 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 2007–08 series of University Challenge by the team captain of SOAS, Joe Perry, who, not knowing the real answer, simply answered "Venezuela?"{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}
• The quiz was the subject of the hour-long BBC Two documentary The Story So Far, first broadcast in November 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00793tb|title=The Story So Far, University Challenge – BBC Two|publisher=bbc.co.uk|access-date=12 December 2016}}
• In 2014, a two part documentary narrated by Richard Osman called 'Class of 2014' outlined a brief history of the programme and the team selection process both within the universities and by the production staff. The documentary attracted some criticism due to the large emphasis on Oxbridge and Manchester during the programme.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/news/0032741-university-challenge-criticised-for-oxbridge-bias.html|title=University Challenge criticised for Oxbridge bias|date=14 July 2014|access-date=30 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202072448/http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/news/0032741-university-challenge-criticised-for-oxbridge-bias.html|archive-date=2 February 2017|url-status=dead}}
• In March 2017 semi-finalist team captains Bobby Seagull of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Eric Monkman of Wolfson College, Cambridge, appeared on BBC One's The One Show.{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/university-challenge-monkman-seagull_uk_58d8e3a8e4b02a2eaab5703f|title=Monkman Vs Seagull: A Potted History of the University Challenge Captains' Bromance|date=27 March 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-03-29/eric-monkman-belted-out-the-imperial-march-on-the-one-show-because-monkman|title=Eric Monkman belted out the Imperial March on The One Show, because Monkman|work=Radio Times }} In August 2017 the two were featured on BBC Radio 4's Today programme{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05br52h|title=Monkman and Seagull on 'divine inspiration' for puzzles, Today – BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|date=7 August 2017 }} ahead of hosting their own show, Monkman and Seagull's Polymathic Adventure, on 21 August.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40811103|title=University Challenge stars get own show|date=3 August 2017|work=BBC News}}
• In 2024, Amol Rajan's reply "We need jungle, I’m afraid" was widely sampled by music producers, becoming a viral phenomenon.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/13/we-need-jungle-im-afraid-how-university-challenge-went-viral-on-the-rave-scene|title='We need jungle, I'm afraid': how University Challenge went viral on the rave scene|first=James|last=Tapper|newspaper=The Observer |date=13 January 2024|via=The Guardian}}

File:Universitychallenge2023.jpg

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, the University of London and formerly the University of Wales 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.{{cite web|last1=Bradley|first1=Wendy|title=I'm gutted about University Challenge. And it's got nothing to do with Paxman|website=TheGuardian.com|date=15 September 2014|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/15/gutted-university-challenge-paxman-diversity|access-date=25 March 2015}} Oxford and Cambridge ("Oxbridge") colleges are prevalent in the competition: for instance, of the Christmas series between 2011 and 2022, Oxbridge colleges represented one-quarter of teams and three-quarters of winners.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/18/bbc-called-to-defend-elitist-format-of-university-challenge|title=BBC called to defend 'elitist' format of University Challenge|work=The Guardian|last=Weaver|first=Matthew|date=18 December 2023|accessdate=9 April 2024}}

The contestants are identified by their surnames during gameplay, apart from at the beginning when they introduce themselves with their full names, where they are from and what they are studying.

The teams generally consist of mixed genders, mostly young adults but with some mature students also appearing.

The current tournament format used for each series is that of a direct knockout tournament starting with 28 teams. The fourteen first-round winners progress directly to the last sixteen. Two repechage 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 sixteen. Teams in the quarter-final round (last eight 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.{{Cite book|title=On University Challenge (Illustrated) |url=http://lystellion.livejournal.com/84288.html |publisher=Jacob Funnell |access-date=15 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820093946/http://lystellion.livejournal.com/84288.html |archive-date=20 August 2011}}

Starter questions are answered individually and are worth ten points. The catchphrase "your starter for ten" inspired David Nicholls' 2003 novel Starter for Ten and the 2006 film based on it starring James McAvoy. An incorrect interruption of a starter question incurs a five-point penalty; during the ITV series this took the form of five points being awarded to the opposing team, whereas in the BBC series five points are deducted from the interrupting team.

The team answering a starter correctly gets a set of three bonus questions worth a potential fifteen points, for which they can confer. Sets of bonus questions are thematically linked. They rarely share a connection with the preceding starter question, except when they are bonuses following a picture or music question. Generally, there are three separate bonus questions worth five points each, but occasionally a bonus will require the enumeration of a given list with five, ten or fifteen points given for correctly giving a certain number of items from the list (for example, "there are seven fundamental SI units. Give five for five points, six for ten points or all seven for fifteen points"). 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 focuses on art, film, television, and literature.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} 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 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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/blind-rachaels-new-challenge-882298 |title=Blind Rachael's new Challenge |last=Bentley |first=Paul |author2=Kathryn Faulkner |date=4 February 2010 |work=South Manchester Reporter |access-date=10 March 2010}} In the 7th episode of the 2024 Christmas series, three audio rounds replaced the usual picture rounds to accommodate two visually impaired participants, Jamie MacDonald and Halima Begum. These audio rounds included identifying bird songs, depictions of snow in classical music and songs featured on the 1974 Pazz & Jop list.

The pace of questioning gradually increases through the show. The sound of a gong signals the end of the game. At this point, the game immediately ends, even if the quizmaster 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 a team either gives a correct answer to a question or is deducted five points for an incorrect interruption to a question. The ending of the programme is usually signified with the quizmaster saying, "It's goodbye from ([name of losing team], who say goodbye), it's goodbye from ([name of winning team], likewise), and it's goodbye from me: goodbye!" Afterwards, during the closing credits Rajan sometimes walks over and confers with the losing team.

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, Munro". The voiceovers are performed live in the studio by Roger Tilling and become more energetic towards the end of the programme. The 1986 series experimented with an actual two-tier set, which was discontinued the following year.

File:University Challenge - Pro-Celebrity edition (1992).jpg

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

• Stephen Fry – Queens' College, Cambridge, 1980
• Clive James – Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1968{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/10/clive-james-16-my-dress-sense-baroque-glory|title=Clive James: 'At 16, my dress sense was in the first full flower of its baroque glory'|first=Clive|last=James|date=10 December 2016|access-date=12 December 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}
• Miriam Margolyes – Newnham College, Cambridge, 1963{{cite book|title=Have You Eaten Grandma?|first=Gyles|last=Brandreth|page=135|publisher=Penguin|date=2018|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZxnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT135|access-date=31 March 2019|isbn=978-0241352656|author-link=Gyles Brandreth}}
• John Sessions – reserve for UCNW Bangor, 1973
• June Tabor – St Hugh's College, Oxford, 1968
• The Wizard of New Zealand (Ian Brackenbury Channell) – University of Leeds, 1963{{youTube|2oZk6DWlw8I|Granada TV's "University Challenge" 1962/3}}

• Sebastian Faulks – Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1972
• Julian Fellowes – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1969
• David Starkey – Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

• Aaron Bell – St John's College, Oxford, 2001
• Tim Boswell – New College, Oxford
• Damian Collins – St Benet's Hall, Oxford, 1995
• Kwasi Kwarteng – Trinity College, Cambridge, 1995
• David Lidington – Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1978
• David Mellor – Christ's College, Cambridge
• Malcolm Rifkind – University of Edinburgh, 1967
• Mary Robinson – Trinity College Dublin, 1966

• David Aaronovitch – Victoria University of Manchester, 1975
• John Authers – University College, Oxford, 1987
• Christopher Hitchens – Balliol College, Oxford, 1968Blake Morrison [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/29/hitch-22-christopher-hitchens-review I contain multitudes], The Guardian, 29 May 2010
• Charles Moore – Trinity College, Cambridge, 1978
• John Simpson – Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1964
• Josh Spero – Magdalen College, Oxford, 2004

• Brandon Blackwell (Quizzer / TV personality) – Imperial College London, 2020
• Daisy Christodoulou (Teacher / Education campaigner) – University of Warwick, 2007
• Patrick Finglass (Academic) – St John's College, Oxford, 2001
• Alex Guttenplan (Academic) – Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 2010
• Sarah Healey (Civil Servant) – Magdalen College, Oxford, 1998
• Mark Labbett (Quizzer / TV personality) – University of Glamorgan, 1997{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-11-05/meet-the-chasers-mark-labbett|title=Meet the Chasers: Mark Labbett|publisher=radiotimes.com|access-date=12 December 2016}}
• Eric Monkman (Academic / TV presenter) – Wolfson College, Cambridge, 2017
• Mark Pallen (Academic) – Imperial College London, 1996
• Jenny Ryan (Quizzer / TV personality) – University of Leeds, 2003
• Bobby Seagull (Teacher / TV presenter) – Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 2017
• Dorjana Širola (Quizzer) – Somerville College, Oxford, 2002
• Michael Taylor (Historian) – Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 2015
• Gail Trimble (Academic) – Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2009

The University of Manchester and Magdalen College, Oxford have both enjoyed four wins each, with Imperial College London having won a record five times.{{cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/252554/imperial-wins-university-challenge-historic-fifth/|title=Imperial wins university challenge|website=Imperial|date=8 April 2024 }} The University of Manchester and Magdalen College, Oxford are also the only teams to successfully defend the title the year after their win (Manchester's 2009 win came only after the original winner was disqualified). Trinity College, Cambridge and Durham University hold three titles, and a further six institutions have two titles: Sussex, the Open University, Sidney Sussex–Cambridge, Keble–Oxford, University–Oxford and Warwick. At the time of Magdalen College, Oxford's third win in 2004, no other institution had won more than twice; the trophy in use since 1994 was given to the college in perpetuity and a new once created for use from 2005.

Information in these tables obtained from Blanchflower – University Challenge Series Champions.{{cite web|author=Sean Blanchflower|title=University Challenge Series Champions|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/uc75.html|website=www.blanchflower.org|access-date=26 February 2008}}

Little is known about the lowest scores from the Bamber Gascoigne series, except that the lowest score ever was in the 1971–72 season, when the University of Sussex, fresh from two series wins, managed only 10 points.{{cite web|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/stats_lowscore.html|title=University Challenge – Lowest Scores|author=Sean Blanchflower|website=www.blanchflower.org|access-date=21 February 2012}} 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.{{cite news|author=Paul Gallagher |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/21/university-challenge-rules-television |title=BBC tightens University Challenge rules in response to fiasco | Television & radio |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=18 April 2016}}

Under Jeremy Paxman, the lowest score achieved by a student team was also 10 which, coincidentally, was also achieved by a team from the University of Sussex, in the first round of the 2021–22 series when they faced the University of Birmingham who scored 245. In the same series, the lowest winning score for a student team was achieved, by Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who scored 85 in a quarter final against King's College London who scored 80. The second lowest losing score is 15, which was achieved by the University of Exeter in a 2008–09 quarter-final against Corpus Christi, Oxford, whose team captain Gail Trimble answered 15 starter questions correctly. 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.{{Cite periodical|title=Gail Trimble's Corpus Christi stripped of University Challenge title|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/02/gail-trimble-university-challenge-team-lose-title|magazine=The Guardian|access-date=31 August 2009 | location=London | first=Leigh | last=Holmwood | date=2009-03-02}} Therefore, the second lowest score officially achieved against eligible opponents under 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, just two weeks after the Corpus Christi vs Exeter match; 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 Paxman-era score was 35, reached by New Hall, Cambridge, 1997.{{Cite web|title=University Challenge – lowest scores|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/stats_lowscore.html|author=Sean Blanchflower|website=www.blanchflower.org|access-date=26 February 2008}} This score would have been lower if all deductions for incorrect interruptions had been applied.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.{{better source needed|date=November 2013}}

The lowest score under Amol Rajan's chairmanship so far is 25, scored by Wadham College, Oxford in the second round of the 2024–25 series against the then-defending champions Imperial College London, who scored 345.

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 finished with 25. An all-time record low score for the series was achieved in the final of the 2017 Christmas series, when Keble College, Oxford, beat the University of Reading 240–0. The previous year's Christmas series saw the lowest winning score of all time, 75, scored by the University of Nottingham, who defeated their opponents, the University of Bristol, by just five points.

University College, Oxford, scored 520 points in the final ITV season in 1987.{{cite web|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/stats_hiscore.html|title=University Challenge – Statistics|author=Sean Blanchflower|website=blanchflower.org|access-date=12 December 2016}}

In the Jeremy Paxman era, the team from Open University scored the highest score, 415, in the semi-final in 1997 against Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School.

Some information from this table was obtained from the web pages listed in {{cite web|title=Special Series|url=http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/results.html|publisher=Sean Blanchflower|access-date=26 February 2008}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-end}}

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 Gascoigne, 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.

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.

Challenging Times was a quiz show for teams representing higher education institutes in Ireland, televised by RTÉ from 1991 to 2001.

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 originally aired on TVNZ 1 and was hosted by Peter Sinclair from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1989. From 1978 to 1979, Sinclair was briefly dropped from the show and was replaced by University of Otago lecturer Charles Higham, Sinclair returned in 1980 and from 1981 to 1982, the show briefly moved to TVNZ 2, it moved back to TV1 in 1983 and remained on the network until the series original conclusion in 1989. The series was revived in 2014 by Cue TV and aired on Prime with Cue TV owner Tom Conroy as host and ran until its second conclusion in 2017.

University Challenge, hosted by 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.{{youTube|sm8lDOY5o8E|University Challenge Australian Grand Final 1988 NSW v Melbourne Part 1}} {{Dead link|date=September 2021}}

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.{{cite magazine |title=Siddhartha Basu: The quizmaster on his latest programme on BBC, the University Challenge (UC)|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?221139 |date=18 August 2003|magazine=Outlook}}

University Challenge inspired the format of two Dutch-language shows: Universiteitsstrijd{{Cite web|title=De Universiteitsstrijd gemist? Start met kijken op NPO Start|url=https://www.npostart.nl/de-universiteitsstrijd/VPWON_1259288|access-date=2021-03-27|website=www.npostart.nl|language=nl}} (the Netherlands), which ran for one season in 2016 on NTR, and {{Interlanguage link|De Campus Cup|lt=De Campus Cup|nl}}{{Citation|title=(Her)bekijk Campus Cup|url=https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/de-campus-cup/|language=nl|access-date=2021-03-27}} (Belgium), which ran since 2019 on Canvas.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140330023109/http://sotontab.co.uk/2014/03/10/interview-university-challenge-team/ Southampton 'University Challenge' team interview] – a rare insight into the personalities of a University Challenge team
• {{BBC programme}}
• [http://www.blanchflower.org/uc/ Sean Blanchflower's University Challenge pages]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100105095425/http://ukgameshows.com/ukgs/University_Challenge 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
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110820093946/http://lystellion.livejournal.com/84288.html A full, illustrated behind-the-scenes account of the matches of the lowest-ever scoring team in the Paxman-era, by an Exeter contestant]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060626100551/http://www.agmcbride.com/uci/ University Challenge India] – a tribute
• [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/nonpodcast/uni_challenge.mp3 Interview with the winning 2007 University of Warwick team]
• {{IMDb title|id=0177465|title=University Challenge}}
• {{Screenonline TV title|1330354|University Challenge}}
• [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/21/university-challenge-rules-television BBC Tightens University Challenge Rules in Response to Fiasco]

{{University Challenge}}

{{authority control}}

Category:1962 British television series debuts

Category:1960s British game shows

Category:1970s British game shows

Category:1980s British game shows

Category:1990s British game shows

Category:2000s British game shows

Category:2010s British game shows

Category:2020s British game shows

Category:BBC television game shows

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:British television series based on American television series

Category:ITV game shows

Category:Quiz games

Category:Student quiz television series

Category:Television shows produced by Granada Television

Category:Television series by ITV Studios

Category:Universities in the United Kingdom