Battle of the Brains
A high school televised quizbowl competition in Virginia, for Richmond-area schools (1979-present) as well as for Hampton Roads (2005-present).
Stations & Hosts
It's Academic was aired for one academic year in the Richmond area, ending in 1976. In 1975, Julian Porter created the Battle of the Brains tournament as an intramural tournament for Meadowbrook High School. From 1976 to 1978 it was for Chesterfield County schools only, and in 1978 the finals match was televised on the local PBS station. In 1979 the tournament expanded to all of Central Virginia and was televised in its entirety. Al Moffitt moderated the original intramural competition. Frank Soden was the longtime host of the PBS program until his 1994 retirement, being joined for one season by Bill King. Ken Curtis also hosted the show at some point. Garret Chester hosted for one season in 1995. From 1996 to 2002, the show was hosted by noted person who "caught a guppy because she was fishing in the dark," May-Lily Lee. Michelle Gary hosted on RICH in 2003, and Cheryl Miller has hosted since 2004.
In 1997 the name was changed to "Challenge 23" (because the PBS station was broadcast on UHF channel 23). This name was retained until the show was cancelled by WCVE in 2002. Julian Porter brought the show first to RICH-TV (a local cable access station) in 2003, and then to the local CBS affiliate in 2004, reclaiming the Battle of the Brains name. Starting in 2004, a second tournament was added for the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News area, under the name "Southeast Virginia." The winners of the two tournaments play in the "Champions Challenge," which, along with an all-star game where every player competes for himself, was added to the taping schedule as a post-finals event. Cheryl Miller has been the host of the Richmond tournament and the Champions Challenge since the move to WTVR, while Stephanie Harris hosts the Hampton Roads version.
Sponsorship
From the first all-televised tournament in 1979 until sometime in the mid-1980s, the show was sponsored by grocery store chain Safeway (which once existed in Richmond!). From the end of Safeway sponsorship until the end of the PBS era in 2002, the show was sponsored by the sinister Richmond-area grocery/religion conglomerate Ukrop's, which awarded $1000 and a cake to the winning team. Since its move to CBS it has been sponsored by the Virginia Lottery (gambling is bad, kids).
One unique feature of this tournament during the Challenge 23 era was its awarding of the single paper set of questions used in each year's competition to the tournament winner. Thus, past champions could view judge's notes, running scores, and other information written on the packets while holding exclusive access to certain practice material.
Questions/Format
During the 1990s, questions were provided by Answers Plus. A special NAQT set was used from the mid-00s through 2008. It is unknown where the 2009 questions come from, though it has been confirmed they were not written by NAQT. According to a June 2009 email between Julian Porter and Dave Porter (no relation!), the 2008-2009 questions came from "several 'professional' question writing companies" and that the show receives "questions from our team of educational consultants."
The show has experimented with several different match formats over the years, including a standard four quarter setup and a modified four quarter with the bonus or category rounds replaced with visual-based clues (such as a round where pyramidal clues were read about an object as a picture of the object was slowly uncovered). In the waning years of Challenge 23, the category round was replaced with a "spelling round," which led to some teams replacing their normal fourth player with a spelling specialist.
Currently, the format is one phase of tossups, two category rounds, and a second phase of tossups.
Incidents
Until 1992 every episode of the show was broadcast live; from 1993 to 2002, only the finals were. The show is now taped in advance. The live broadcasts allowed for many strange things to happen, such as a mysterious individual running onto the stage and jumping into the arms of winning team member Jimmy Hare following the 2000 championship game.
In 1988, the championship was won on a sudden-death tiebreaker question, which began "The Netherlands...." and was successfully interrupted by a Meadowbrook player with "euthanasia."
Information 1976-2004 (Richmond-only show)
Information 2005-on
Champions Challenge winner in bold.
| Year & Show Name | Richmond Champion | Southeast Virginia Champion | Richmond Host & Station | Southeast Virginia Host & Station | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 Battle of the Brains | Charlottesville | Kecoughtan | Cheryl Miller, CBS WTVR | Stephanie Harris, NBC WAVY | |
| 2006 Battle of the Brains | Maggie Walker | Ocean Lakes | Cheryl Miller, CBS WTVR | Stephanie Harris, NBC WAVY | |
| 2007 Battle of the Brains | Maggie Walker | Ocean Lakes | Cheryl Miller, CBS WTVR | Stephanie Harris, NBC WAVY | |
| 2008 Battle of the Brains | Maggie Walker | Hickory | Cheryl Miller, CBS WTVR | Stephanie Harris, NBC WAVY | |
| 2009 Battle of the Brains | Maggie Walker | Ocean Lakes | Cheryl Miller, CBS WTVR | Stephanie Harris, NBC WAVY |