The Challenge
The Challenge is a televised quiz bowl show that has aired in the Tri-State area since at least 1993. It is a staple of bad quizbowl in the area, with many "quiz bowl" or academic teams competing solely in this show.
During its run, the show has had many different formats.
1993 format
The host of this version was Paul Spychala. Each week, two teams of three compete in a tournament. The first round is seven minutes long and contains five-point tossups and bonuses (without bounceback). The second round is the category round. In this round, each team gets three directed 10 point questions in the same three categories. Once a player answers a question correctly in a category, that player may not answer for the rest of that category. Whoever gets the most questions in the round gets the opportunity to answer a 20-point question. The third round is a 7-minute all-tossup round. In this round, questions are worth 10 points, but a wrong answer allows the other team to answer for 20 points.
2000s format
Two teams of four compete in a single-elimination tournament. Teams start with 100 points. The format is again three rounds. In the first round, questions are all multiple choice and come from four categories (always pertaining to history, literature, science, and computational math). The question and choices are displayed as the host reads the question, but the players cannot buzz in until the question is finished. Players may confer during the reading of the question and before someone buzzes. Each question is worth 5 points. Additionally, a randomly-selected question in each category is designated a "Power to Learn Bonus Question": if a team answers the corresponding tossup, that team can answer a (non-multiple-choice) bonus question for five bonus points.
The second round is the lightning round. The team that is behind chooses one of two categories for questions. Each team has 60 seconds to answer up to 10 questions. The team that gets the most right answers wins 10 points. If there is a tie, both teams get 5 points.
The third round consists of four categories of short-answer questions. Questions in this round are worth 10 points, but 10 points are deducted for a wrong answer. Again, bonus questions are hidden in each category, and wrong answers to bonus questions do not deduct points. The team with the most points wins the game.
2008 changes
In 2008, some changes were made to the format. Now, the lightning round gives both teams 5 points for each correct answer. Additionally, the penalty in the third round for wrong answers has been removed. Finally, the game ends with the "180 Round," where four new categories with three questions are offered. The first question in each category is a tossup for 10 points, the second and third questions are worth 15 and 20 points respectively and are offered first to the team that got the previous question correct.
Since the 2008 season, changes to the format have been relatively minor: in 2009, the bonus questions during the first round were replaced with a 20-point "Get the Picture" bonus, a hidden image that would be progressively revealed by certain questions and, if not solved before the end of the round, would be fully revealed for both teams to buzz on. In 2010, the Get the Picture was removed, leaving the first round as only multiple choice questions.