Difference between revisions of "University Challenge"

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'''University Challenge''' ('''UC''') is a British television quiz show hosted by Jeremy Paxman. It is an official spin-off of the [[College Bowl]] program, though its format is closer to common quizbowl format (i.e. bonuses all worth five points unlike College Bowl's [[variable value bonus]]).
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'''University Challenge''' ('''UC''') is a British television quiz show in which teams of students from universities and colleges in the UK compete against each other in a knockout tournament. University Challenge was originally a spin-off of [[College Bowl]]. The programme first aired in 1962, being aired on ITV and hosted by Bamber Gascoigne until the show was axed after 1987. UC was revived in 1994, airing on the BBC and being hosted by Jeremy Paxman until the end of the 52nd series in 2023, whereupon he was replaced by Amol Rajan.
  
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It has come under fire for allowing different colleges of [[Oxford]] and [[Cambridge]] to play as separate teams (i.e. Magdalen College, New College, and Oriel College, all of Oxford), allowing them a proportionally better chance at winning as an institution.
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[[Imperial College London]] has the most series wins, with 5 as of 2024. The University of Manchester and [[Oxford]]'s Magdalene College are tied for second with 4 wins each.
  
 
==Format==
 
==Format==
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There is a musical clue at around the halfway point, and two picture clues about one-quarter and three- quarters of the way.
+
''University Challenge'' is roughly similar to quizbowl in format, although differs in question style. Starter questions are answered on the buzzer and are worth 10 points, with a 5 point penalty for an incorrect interruption. Starter questions are generally much shorter than quizbowl tossups, only consisting of 1 or 2 sentences, and are not necessarily pyramidal. A correct starter question earns the team a set of 3 bonus questions, worth 5 points each.
 +
 
 +
There are always two visual (or picture) rounds per game, and an audio round (almost invariably music) at the halfway mark. The visual rounds can be on a wide range of themes, although the audio round is typically either classical or popular music. If a picture or music starter is missed, the related bonus questions are held until the next starter question is correctly answered.
 +
 
 +
The tournament format has been unchanged since 2010. 28 teams are selected to take part every year, with the first round consisting of 14 one-on-one matches between them. The 14 winning teams automatically go through to the second round, while the 4 teams with the highest losing score compete against each other at the end of the first round, with a total of 16 teams entering the second round. The second round is a straight knockout round with no repechage.
 +
In the quarter-final round, teams must win twice to progress to the semi-finals, and teams that lose twice are knocked out. From the semi-finals, it once again becomes a knock-out tournament.
 +
 
 +
The programme has been criticised for allowing individual colleges from the universities of [[Oxford]] and [[Cambridge]] to enter as separate teams, which results in those universities receiving a disproportionate amount of airtime.  
  
 
==Past results==
 
==Past results==
 +
===BBC series (1994-present)===
 
{| class=wikitable
 
{| class=wikitable
 
!width=20|Year
 
!width=20|Year
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|-
 
|-
 
|1995
 
|1995
−
|[[Cambridge]]
+
|Trinity, [[Cambridge]]
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|New, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|1996
 
|1996
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|-
 
|-
 
|1997
 
|1997
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Magdalen, [[Oxford]]
 
|[[Open University]]
 
|[[Open University]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|1998
 
|1998
−
|[[Oxford]]  
+
|Magdalen, [[Oxford]]  
−
|[[University of London]]
+
|[[Birkbeck]], London
 
|-
 
|-
 
|1999
 
|1999
 
|[[Open University]]
 
|[[Open University]]
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Oriel, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2000
 
|2000
−
|[[Durham]]  
+
|[[Durham]]
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Oriel, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2001
 
|2001
 
|[[Imperial]]  
 
|[[Imperial]]  
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|St John's, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2002
 
|2002
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Somerville, [[Oxford]]
 
|[[Imperial]]
 
|[[Imperial]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2003
 
|2003
−
|[[University of London]]
+
|Birkbeck, [[University of London]]
 
|[[Cranfield University]]
 
|[[Cranfield University]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2004
 
|2004
−
|[[Oxford]]  
+
|Magdalen, [[Oxford]]  
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Gonville and Caius, [[Cambridge]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2005
 
|2005
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Corpus Christi, [[Oxford]]
−
|[[University College London]]
+
|[[UCL]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2006
 
|2006
 
|[[Manchester]]
 
|[[Manchester]]
−
|[[Cambridge]]
+
|Trinity Hall, [[Cambridge]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2007
 
|2007
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|-
 
|-
 
|2008
 
|2008
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|Christ Church, [[Oxford]]
 
|[[Sheffield]]
 
|[[Sheffield]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2009
 
|2009
 
|[[Manchester]]  
 
|[[Manchester]]  
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Corpus Christi, [[Oxford]]<ref group="note">Corpus Christi College were originally declared the winners, but were disqualified after the final had aired when it was found that team member Sam Kay had not been a student at the time of filming.</ref>
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2010
 
|2010
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Emmanuel, [[Cambridge]]
−
|[[Oxford]]
+
|St John's, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2011
 
|2011
−
|[[Oxford]]  
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|Magdalen, [[Oxford]]  
−
|[[University of York]]
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|[[York]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2012
 
|2012
 
|[[Manchester]]  
 
|[[Manchester]]  
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Pembroke, [[Cambridge]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2013
 
|2013
 
|[[Manchester]]
 
|[[Manchester]]
−
|[[University College London]]
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|[[UCL]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2014
 
|2014
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Trinity, [[Cambridge]]
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|[[Oxford]]
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|Somerville, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2015
 
|2015
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Gonville and Caius, [[Cambridge]]
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|[[Oxford]]
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|Magdalen, [[Oxford]]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|2016
 
|2016
−
|[[Cambridge]]
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|Peterhouse, [[Cambridge]]
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|[[Oxford]]
+
|St John's, [[Oxford]]
 +
|-
 +
|2017
 +
|Balliol, [[Oxford]]
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|Wolfson, [[Cambridge]]
 +
|-
 +
|2018
 +
|St John's, [[Cambridge]]
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|Merton, [[Oxford]]
 +
|-
 +
|2019
 +
|[[Edinburgh]]
 +
|St Edmund's, [[Oxford]]
 +
|-
 +
|2020
 +
|[[Imperial]]
 +
|Corpus Christi, [[Cambridge]]
 +
|-
 +
|2021
 +
|[[Warwick]]
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|Magdalene, [[Cambridge]]
 +
|-
 +
|2022
 +
|[[Imperial]]
 +
|[[Reading]]
 +
|-
 +
|2023
 +
|[[Durham]]
 +
|[[Bristol]]
 +
|-
 +
|2024
 +
|[[Imperial]]
 +
|[[UCL]]
 
|}
 
|}
  
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==Notes==
 +
<references group="note" />
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==
 +
* [https://www.blanchflower.org/uc/index.html Blanchflower results page]
 
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Challenge Wikipedia entry]
 
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Challenge Wikipedia entry]
 
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6l0 University Challenge page on bbc.co.uk]
 
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6l0 University Challenge page on bbc.co.uk]
 
* the 2006 film ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_for_10_(film) Starter for 10]'' is named for the British equivalent of "[[for 10 points]]" and follows the [[Bristol University]] UC team
 
* the 2006 film ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_for_10_(film) Starter for 10]'' is named for the British equivalent of "[[for 10 points]]" and follows the [[Bristol University]] UC team
  
−
[[Category:Stubs]]
 
 
[[Category:British quizbowl]]
 
[[Category:British quizbowl]]
 +
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]]

Latest revision as of 19:15, 29 July 2024

University Challenge (UC) is a British television quiz show in which teams of students from universities and colleges in the UK compete against each other in a knockout tournament. University Challenge was originally a spin-off of College Bowl. The programme first aired in 1962, being aired on ITV and hosted by Bamber Gascoigne until the show was axed after 1987. UC was revived in 1994, airing on the BBC and being hosted by Jeremy Paxman until the end of the 52nd series in 2023, whereupon he was replaced by Amol Rajan.

Imperial College London has the most series wins, with 5 as of 2024. The University of Manchester and Oxford's Magdalene College are tied for second with 4 wins each.

Format

University Challenge is roughly similar to quizbowl in format, although differs in question style. Starter questions are answered on the buzzer and are worth 10 points, with a 5 point penalty for an incorrect interruption. Starter questions are generally much shorter than quizbowl tossups, only consisting of 1 or 2 sentences, and are not necessarily pyramidal. A correct starter question earns the team a set of 3 bonus questions, worth 5 points each.

There are always two visual (or picture) rounds per game, and an audio round (almost invariably music) at the halfway mark. The visual rounds can be on a wide range of themes, although the audio round is typically either classical or popular music. If a picture or music starter is missed, the related bonus questions are held until the next starter question is correctly answered.

The tournament format has been unchanged since 2010. 28 teams are selected to take part every year, with the first round consisting of 14 one-on-one matches between them. The 14 winning teams automatically go through to the second round, while the 4 teams with the highest losing score compete against each other at the end of the first round, with a total of 16 teams entering the second round. The second round is a straight knockout round with no repechage. In the quarter-final round, teams must win twice to progress to the semi-finals, and teams that lose twice are knocked out. From the semi-finals, it once again becomes a knock-out tournament.

The programme has been criticised for allowing individual colleges from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to enter as separate teams, which results in those universities receiving a disproportionate amount of airtime.

Past results

BBC series (1994-present)

Year Winners Runners-up
1995 Trinity, Cambridge New, Oxford
1996 Imperial London School of Economics
1997 Magdalen, Oxford Open University
1998 Magdalen, Oxford Birkbeck, London
1999 Open University Oriel, Oxford
2000 Durham Oriel, Oxford
2001 Imperial St John's, Oxford
2002 Somerville, Oxford Imperial
2003 Birkbeck, University of London Cranfield University
2004 Magdalen, Oxford Gonville and Caius, Cambridge
2005 Corpus Christi, Oxford UCL
2006 Manchester Trinity Hall, Cambridge
2007 Warwick Manchester
2008 Christ Church, Oxford Sheffield
2009 Manchester Corpus Christi, Oxford[note 1]
2010 Emmanuel, Cambridge St John's, Oxford
2011 Magdalen, Oxford York
2012 Manchester Pembroke, Cambridge
2013 Manchester UCL
2014 Trinity, Cambridge Somerville, Oxford
2015 Gonville and Caius, Cambridge Magdalen, Oxford
2016 Peterhouse, Cambridge St John's, Oxford
2017 Balliol, Oxford Wolfson, Cambridge
2018 St John's, Cambridge Merton, Oxford
2019 Edinburgh St Edmund's, Oxford
2020 Imperial Corpus Christi, Cambridge
2021 Warwick Magdalene, Cambridge
2022 Imperial Reading
2023 Durham Bristol
2024 Imperial UCL

Notes

  1. ↑ Corpus Christi College were originally declared the winners, but were disqualified after the final had aired when it was found that team member Sam Kay had not been a student at the time of filming.

External links

Retrieved from "https://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=University_Challenge&oldid=64939"