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It's Academic

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It's Academic is a high school version of Quizbowl, in Washington, DC (WRC-TV), Charlottesville, Virginia (WVIR), and Baltimore, Maryland (WJZ). The show has been on the air since 1961, making it the longest running game show ever. The host, Mac McGarry, has held the job in Washington since the beginning. The show features three local high school teams of three players each competing for scholarship money. Over the years Giant Food has been the sponsor, and over $2,000,000 has been given out for school scholarship funds.

The television tournament is a single elimination tournament featuring 81 schools. The winners in each region (Baltimore, D.C. Metro and Central Virginia) go on to battle each other in the "Super Bowl."

Contents

Gameplay

The show's format is as follows:

First Round (Toss-Up)

The questions are thematic. Questions are worth 10 points up or down. During this round contestants in the studio do not see the questions on the screen that the audience at home does.

Second Round

Individual questions, directed at the teams. All questions are worth 20 points, except for the occasional two-parter worth 40 points (20 for each part)

Third Round (Visual Round)

Each of the questions has a corresponding image. All questions are worth 10 points up or down.

In older versions of the show, there was a second category round after the Visual Round.

Fourth Round

Eight individual questions. All questions are worth 20 points and a 25 point bonus is awarded for answering all of them correctly.

Fifth Round (\"Grab Bag Free-For-All\")

The number of questions are limited only by the time left in the game. Questions are worth 20 points up or down, with visual questions worth 30.

Spin-Offs

Most schools have other tournaments which they compete in through out the year. These other tournaments generally last one day and do not award cash prizes. These tournaments are not affiliated with the TV show, and often use a different format such as NAQT. Most tournaments rely either on bracketing or Swiss pairing in the preliminary rounds and then a single elimination playoff.

The show is aired in Ohio as Academic Challenge, and in western Pennsylvania as Hometown High-Q.

An Australian version of the show aired on Network Ten and the Seven Network from 1968-1975, and was revived by Seven's Perth affiliate in 2001. Seven took the show national in 2005 (see It's Academic (Australia)).

WNBC-TV in New York aired a local edition of It's Academic from 1969-1971, hosted by Art James.

A show using the It's Academic name aired in Richmond, Virginia in the 1970s, but that has been replaced by Battle of the Brains. Battle of the Brains has also replaced a version of It's Academic that aired in Hampton Roads.

The World Affairs Council, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, began hosting an annual It's Academic International event in 2002 whose aim is to promote interest in international affairs and events, also hosted by Mac McGarry.

Notable Contestants

Notable figures who have competed on It's Academic include:

Hillary Clinton also appeared as an alternate, and Sandra Bullock appeared on the show as a cheerleader.

Champions

(Note, Bold Denotes Super Bowl Champions)

1999

2000

2001

2002

2004

2005

2006

External Links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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