What are your views on the differences between those shows? From 5-10 jeopardy! episodes I've watched online, I can consistently get 50% or more of the answers correct, while for University Challenge that comes to about 10-20%. And are these games fixed in favour of certain institutions or people? views please

I know just about nothing about the American game show Jeopardy but more about University Challenge in the UK.

In University Challenge the clue is in the title of the show, teams from universities are in competition and it is reasonably sure, that since they take it very seriously, that the teams will have some very intelligent members and the questions are fairly difficult. I do not think there is any 'fixing'.

It might be like comparing a meal in a McDonald's to one in a Michelin star restaurant, an unfair comparison.

Not unfair at all, Sue. There's simply no comparison between the two. I've watched both and can assure you that watching Jeopardy wears a little thin after a while.

I think that comparison is a little incorrect.

You could compare "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" to MacDonald's - it's all about the sizzle with very little substance, extremely easy questions that here would be in FC, and apparently contestants picked for their cluelessness.

"Jeopardy" is a little smarter. And the questions are specifically chosen so that the normal reasonably aware reasonably educated person can feel competitive - the kind of person who here averages between 700 - 900 in the Duel is supposed to feel "Hey, I could play this game". Using Sue's analogy, "Jeopardy" is your local pretty decent pizza place.

University Challenge seems a bit class geared though, as there is a lot of emphasis on classical music, natural sciences, and pre 1900 art, while jeopardy can ask you about cereals and car makes and seems to be a more "peoples game". also the fact that they win money on it is pretty awesome. I wouldn't mind winning 10 000 dollars for knowing capitals, obscure historical facts, and such

I'd say that they are meant to appeal to different people, and to do different things.

We have several ex "Jeopardy" contestants among our members here - it's not quite as easy as it looks from the couch in your living room. Quite often all the players know the answer, and it's a question of working the clicker correctly.

I agree that it'd be difficult to perform under pressure for most people, except for those who are used to being on camera all their life in those circumstances. It's just that I streamed the last 10 or so episodes that appeared, and knew up to 50% of the answers, and knew a lot no one got, but of course at the same time didn't know many answers particularly as they're oriented towards a US audience. In contrast, in University Challenge, my education in the natural sciences is limited, as is my classical music knowledge, and I felt a bit silly knowing so few of the answers. It seems in University challenge, Oxford or Cambridge always win, because they're more privileged/fancier. And of course, those are top unis so naturally out of thousands of students they'd have at least 4 trivia buffs

I've only watched Jeopardy!, and I actually like that show. I can answer about half of the clues myself, but it can be a challenge at times, which excites me. The current incarnation of Jeopardy! has run constant since 1984 (32 years).

For those of you who haven't seen University Challenge, here's a youtube video of a recent episode featuring one of our teammates. A fantastic showing by Warwick University. It's in a completely different league than Jeopardy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY01uzgrMKA

Well played, Pagea!

Only two teams have ever won four series of University Challenge so someone had the bright idea of pitching them against each other. Here is the Champion of Champions match - Magdalan College, Oxford v. Manchester University. If you look very carefully, at the beginning there are a few still shots of winning Manchester teams featuring, from the Revenge of the Llamas, our very own Doublemm.

https://youtu.be/f3ti2UmUQIg

Of course, if you don't know what he looks like that won't help you!

The British like quizzes where they don't know the answers; no need to feel silly, we just admire and applaud the contestants who do know. Some of our quizzes are even more difficult than University Challenge. The BBC's 'Only Connect' is sometimes so difficult that no one knows the answer even after the host has read it out. The host is herself fiendishly clever so if Victoria Coren Mitchell doesn't know there's no hope for the rest of us.

I suspect that money alters the balance a bit. These 'clever' quizzes (and there have been others) are rarely played for money, and if they are, it's not for much. British audiences don't like it if things are pitched at such a low level that everyone can win but they would also complain if questions were so difficult that no one could get the cash prize. But when the prize is just a trophy, difficult questions aren't robbing anyone of anything and the people who win get a bit more glory.

I was once on a quiz show called 'Fifteen to One' where the prize was always something like a Roman vase or Greek urn. I don't think we knew in advance what the prize was but if we did we didn't care. There was even something like relief in not winning - what on earth would I have done with an Etruscan pot and who would dust it? Fortunately I survived the first two questions but got eliminated a bit later; as one of my great-nephews said ""you almost got to the interval, no shame there". I'm going to have that engraved on my tombstone "she almost got to the interval".

The nearest I got to one of these brainy quizzes is having been at school, although in the year below, of a Mastermind champion. She was brainy then too.