The most-watched television broadcast in American history isn’t a Super Bowl. It’s the final episode of M*A*S*H, and it pulled 105.97 million viewers on a single night in 1983. I’ve asked that question to hundreds of people, and almost nobody gets it right. Everyone reaches for a Super Bowl, because of course they do. That confident wrongness is the whole game.
I’ve been running live trivia for years, and TV trivia is a specific kind of beast. People who watch a lot of television think they know television. They know the shows they love. They know the actors they follow. But they don’t know the connective tissue, the weird production details, the moments where their memory has quietly replaced the truth with something that feels more correct. That gap between what you remember and what actually happened is where the best TV trivia lives.
These 100 questions have all been tested in real rooms. Some of them land like softballs. Some of them start arguments that outlast the event. A few of them will make you pull out your phone to verify the answer, because you’ll be absolutely sure I’m wrong. I’m not.
1. What was the name of the bar in Cheers?
I open with this one sometimes just to settle the room down. Everyone gets it. Everyone feels good. That’s the point. You need people to trust themselves before you take the floor out.
2. On Friends, what is the name of Ross’s first wife?
The room always splits here. Not on whether they know it, but on whether they’re thinking of the right marriage. Ross had three wives. The brain wants to jump to Emily or Rachel. But first is first.
3. What city does The Office (US) take place in?
I’ve had people shout “Scranton!” before I finish the question. Which is fine. But I once had a table write down “Wilkes-Barre” with total confidence, and honestly, I respected it.
4. In Seinfeld, what is Kramer’s first name?
This one’s a litmus test. If you know it, you’ve watched the show. If you don’t, you’ve watched clips. It wasn’t revealed until the sixth season.
5. What animated show holds the record for the most episodes of any American primetime series?
People want to say The Simpsons, and they’re right. But I’ve seen confident answers of South Park and even Family Guy. It’s not close. The Simpsons has been on since 1989 and has over 770 episodes.
6. What was the name of the island on Gilligan’s Island?
This is a trick question disguised as an easy one. People say “Gilligan’s Island” like that’s the name. It was never officially named on the show. The castaways just called it “the island.” In later TV movies it was referred to as Gilligan’s Island, but during the original run, it had no name.
7. What does CBS stand for?
Rooms go quiet on this one. Everyone’s seen those three letters a thousand times and never once thought about it.
8. “So no one told you life was gonna be this way” is the opening line of what TV theme song?
Easy. But here’s what I love about this question in a room: people don’t just answer it. They clap four times.
9. What TV show’s theme song was performed by The Who and starts with the lyric “Out here in the fields”?
The Who did theme songs for multiple shows in the same franchise. This is where people start second-guessing.
10. What 1990s sitcom opened with a jazzy bass line and the cast dancing in a fountain?
Nope, it’s not Friends. Friends had a fountain, but the bass line description throws people. This is a different show entirely.
11. What show’s opening sequence features a family watching TV on a couch, and the couch gag changes every episode?
12. “Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got” opens which classic sitcom?
If you’re over 40, you heard Gary Portnoy’s voice in your head before you finished reading the question.
13. What HBO drama had a different musical artist perform its theme song, “Way Down in the Hole,” for each of its five seasons?
This is one of those details that separates people who watched the show from people who studied it.
14. What was the first American TV show to use a theme song that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
People guess Friends or Miami Vice. Neither is right, though the Miami Vice guess is closer in spirit.
15. In Breaking Bad, what is Walter White’s street address?
I ask this one because it separates the people who watched the show from the people who can still see the house in their mind. The real address became a tourist destination, and the actual homeowners had to put up a fence.
16. What was the first reality TV show to air on American network television?
Everyone says Survivor or The Real World. But The Real World was cable, and Survivor premiered in 2000. The answer predates both by decades, depending on how you define “reality TV.”
17. How many seasons did the original Star Trek series run?
Non-Trekkies always guess higher. The show was a ratings disappointment in its time. It became iconic in syndication.
18. What actor has hosted Saturday Night Live the most times?
The answer changes over time, but as of now, it’s a name that always surprises people who think of SNL as a comedy institution.
19. On The Sopranos, what is Tony Soprano’s mother’s name?
She’s one of the most terrifying characters in the show’s first two seasons. If you watched it, you remember her. But the name escapes people.
20. What sitcom featured a “Festivus” celebration that became a real cultural phenomenon?
21. In Game of Thrones, what are the words of House Stark?
Every table gets this one. But then I follow up with House Lannister’s words and the room collapses. “A Lannister always pays his debts” is NOT their official house words.
22. What are the official words of House Lannister in Game of Thrones?
And here’s where the collapse happens. In live events, I’d say 80% of rooms get this wrong.
23. What was the first cable TV series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series?
This one matters because it marks a tectonic shift in television. Before this win, the Emmys were a network affair.
24. What country produced the original version of The Office?
25. In The Twilight Zone, who served as narrator and host?
26. On Lost, what were “the numbers” that kept recurring throughout the series?
This question divides every room into two groups: people who remember all six numbers like a phone number they’ll never forget, and people who remember none of them. There’s no middle ground.
27. What is the longest-running primetime live-action scripted TV series in the United States?
People go straight to Law & Order: SVU, and they’re in the right neighborhood. But there’s an older contender that often gets forgotten.
28. What show was the first scripted TV series to stream exclusively on Netflix?
This is the question that marks where television changed forever. And the answer always surprises people who think it was something bigger.
29. In what year did the final episode of M*A*S*H air?
30. What medical drama was set at Seattle Grace Hospital?
31. Who played the original host of The Price Is Right when it debuted in 1956?
Everyone’s brain goes to Bob Barker. He hosted for 35 years. But he wasn’t the first.
32. What was the first interracial kiss on American network television, and what show featured it?
This one always generates debate because the history is more complicated than the simple answer. But the commonly cited one is iconic.
33. What show coined the term “jumped the shark”?
The phrase describes the moment a show declines in quality. The literal event it references is beautifully absurd.
34. In Stranger Things, what is Eleven’s real name?
People who binged it know this. People who watched it week to week sometimes don’t. It’s mentioned, but the show doesn’t dwell on it.
35. What TV show takes place in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana?
36. What 1999 HBO series is widely credited with launching the “Golden Age of Television”?
37. What was the name of the fictional paper company in The Office?
38. In Mad Men, what is Don Draper’s real name?
This is central to the entire show’s mythology, and yet people who watched all seven seasons still hesitate. The name doesn’t stick the way “Don Draper” does, which is sort of the point.
39. What TV series was based on a British show called Steptoe and Son?
The American adaptation became one of the most important shows in television history. The British origin is almost never mentioned.
40. What was the first animated series to air in primetime on a major American network?
Everyone says The Simpsons. They’re off by about 30 years.
41. What show featured the catchphrase “How you doin’?”
42. Before The Daily Show was hosted by Jon Stewart, who was the original host?
Jon Stewart made the show what it became. But he inherited it.
43. What was the first American TV show to show a toilet on screen?
This is one of those questions that sounds like it can’t possibly have a definitive answer, but it does, and it’s perfect.
44. In The Wire, what drug kingpin is played by Idris Elba?
45. What TV show popularized the phrase “voted off the island”?
46. In How I Met Your Mother, what is the name of the bar where the main characters hang out?
Nine seasons in that bar and I’ve watched people forget the name mid-sentence.
47. On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what is the name of the family Will moves in with?
48. What was the name of the coffee shop in Friends?
49. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, what is the name of the fictional California town where the show is set?
50. On Seinfeld, what actor played George Costanza’s father, Frank?
This performance was so specific and so loud that it became its own gravitational force. Jerry Stiller turned a supporting role into something unforgettable.
51. In The X-Files, what was the tagline that appeared on the poster in Mulder’s office?
52. What sitcom character famously said “Did I do that?”
53. In Arrested Development, what is the name of the frozen banana stand?
“There’s always money in the banana stand” became one of the most quoted lines in TV comedy. The stand itself has a name people forget.
54. What was the fictional high school in Saved by the Bell?
55. In The Walking Dead, what weapon does Negan carry?
56. What TV producer created both Lost and Alias?
57. What legendary TV host’s real first name was Johnnie, though he went by a different name professionally?
He hosted the same show for 30 years. His real name sounds like it belongs to a different person entirely.
58. Who created The Twilight Zone, wrote most of its episodes, and narrated every one?
59. What showrunner is credited with creating Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder?
60. Who directed the pilot episode of Breaking Bad?
This is a trick question of sorts, because the answer is the same person who created the show. He directed the pilot himself, and it set the visual language for everything that followed.
61. What comedian and TV writer created 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and co-created Mean Girls (the movie)?
62. What producer’s name appears at the end of shows like The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, though he didn’t create any of them?
This is an obscure one. It’s about the production companies and vanity cards you’d see at the end of episodes.
63. What TV show was David Letterman hosting when he famously lost the Tonight Show job to Jay Leno in 1992?
64. What 1970s sitcom was the first to address the topic of abortion in a primetime episode?
This was groundbreaking television, and the show’s creator fought CBS to keep it in. The episode aired two months before Roe v. Wade.
65. What 1980s show featured a car named K.I.T.T.?
66. What was the highest-rated single episode of television in the 1990s?
It wasn’t a Super Bowl. It wasn’t a finale. It was a very specific cultural event within a sitcom.
67. What 2000s show was set on Wisteria Lane?
68. In the 1960s, what show featured a genie living in a bottle found on a beach by an astronaut?
69. What groundbreaking 1970s miniseries, based on Alex Haley’s book, traced an African American family from slavery to freedom?
70. What 1980s primetime soap opera featured a season-ending cliffhanger asking “Who shot J.R.?”
71. In Breaking Bad, what is the name of Hank’s wife?
She’s in nearly every episode. She has a significant subplot. And yet this question stumps more people than “What is Walter White’s street address.”
72. On Schitt’s Creek, what is the name of the motel where the Rose family lives?
73. In The Good Place, what is the first thing Eleanor Shellstrop says when she arrives in the afterlife?
Not the exact quote, but the essence of it. The show’s entire premise hinges on this opening scene.
74. What actress played both Phoebe Buffay and her twin sister Ursula on Friends?
The twin sister also appeared on a completely different NBC show. Same actress, same character, different series.
75. In Succession, what is the name of the media conglomerate owned by the Roy family?
76. What was the name of Tony Soprano’s strip club in The Sopranos?
77. In Ted Lasso, what English football club does Ted coach?
78. On The Simpsons, what is the name of the elementary school Bart attends?
79. In Fleabag, what does the title character do for a living?
People remember the confessional style, the priest, the fourth-wall breaks. They rarely remember her actual job.
80. What color is the meth that Walter White produces in Breaking Bad?
81. What TV show was filmed in the same house used as the exterior of the Brady Bunch home, and had to buy it from HGTV?
This is a weird piece of TV real estate history that crossed generations.
82. What actor appeared in both The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, playing memorable criminals in both?
83. What sitcom holds the record for most Emmy Awards won by a comedy series?
People guess Seinfeld or Friends. Neither is close.
84. In Twin Peaks, what is the name of the murdered girl whose death drives the plot?
85. What actor played the same character on three different TV shows: Cheers, Frasier, and Wings?
This is a trick. The answer isn’t Kelsey Grammer, though he did appear on all three. There’s another actor who played the same character across the three shows too.
86. What was the first TV show to earn more than $1 million for a 30-second commercial during its broadcast?
It wasn’t a show, technically. But it was a television event.
87. What dystopian drama, based on a Margaret Atwood novel, stars Elisabeth Moss?
88. In Better Call Saul, what is Jimmy McGill’s brother’s name?
Chuck McGill is one of the most polarizing characters in the Breaking Bad universe. People either feel deeply for him or can’t stand him. Either way, they remember him.
89. What TV show’s pilot episode was the most expensive ever produced at the time of its airing in 2010?
The pilot cost between $10 and $15 million. The show went on to become one of the biggest in TV history.
90. What children’s show has been on the air since 1969 and is set on a street populated by both humans and puppets?
91. What TV character’s last words were “I think I’ll go for a walk”?
This is obscure enough that most rooms won’t get it. But the ones who do light up.
92. What TV show features a family with the last name Bluth?
93. In Downton Abbey, what is the family name of the aristocrats who own the estate?
94. What comedian hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975?
People always guess Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd. They were cast members, not the host.
95. What TV show features the fictional drug “Blue Sky” and takes place primarily in Albuquerque?
96. In Stranger Things, what board game do the boys play in the first episode that foreshadows the entire series?
97. What was the name of the fictional detergent in Fight Club? Just kidding. What TV show featured a main character who worked at a company called Initech?
Also a movie trick. Initech is from Office Space, which is a film. In TV trivia, people’s brains blur the line between shows and movies constantly. The real question:
97. (Real question) What long-running TV show features a host who says “Come on down!” to contestants?
98. What show, which aired its final episode in 2013, was set in Albuquerque and ended with the song “Baby Blue” by Badfinger?
If you heard that song before the finale, you forgot it. After the finale, you’ll never hear it the same way again. That’s what a perfect needle drop does.
99. What TV show was cancelled after one season on Fox in 2002, developed a massive cult following on DVD, and inspired a feature film in 2005?
This question is a loyalty test. The people who know it don’t just answer it. They get a look on their face.
100. What was the last line of dialogue in the final episode of The Sopranos, spoken just before the screen cuts to black?
This is the question I save for last because it does something no other TV trivia question does. It makes the room go quiet. Not because it’s hard, but because to answer it, you have to put yourself back in that moment. June 10, 2007. Millions of people watching. “Don’t Stop Believin'” playing. Meadow parking the car. The door opens. And then nothing. The answer to this question is the last thing anyone says before the most debated ending in television history. People who remember it feel it again. People who don’t remember it feel the absence. Either way, the room holds still for a second, and that’s exactly where I want to end.
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