The pilot episode of New Girl almost didn’t have Nick Miller in it. Jake Johnson originally auditioned for the role of Schmidt, and the character of Nick was rewritten after the showrunners saw what Johnson could do with a different kind of energy. Which means the entire emotional backbone of seven seasons, that slow-burn thing between Nick and Jess that kept people watching through some genuinely uneven middle seasons, exists because of a casting room pivot. I think about that a lot when I write new girl trivia, because the show itself was built on happy accidents and chemistry that shouldn’t have worked but did.
The people who search for this stuff aren’t casual. They’ve seen the show more than once. They quote Winston’s cat by name. They have opinions about whether Coach or Winston was better for the loft dynamic. They think they know everything, and they’re right about maybe 70% of it. That last 30% is where the fun lives.
Here are 40 questions. Some will feel like layups. Some will make you realize you’ve been misremembering a scene for years.
The Loft, the Jar, the Basics
1. What is the number of the loft where Jess and the guys live?
Everyone remembers the loft. Almost nobody remembers the number on the door, even though it’s visible in nearly every episode. Your brain files it as set dressing.
Show Answer
Loft 4D. A surprising number of people guess 4A or 4B, probably because those are the default sitcom apartment numbers burned into our heads by Friends and Seinfeld.
2. What is Jess’s job when the show begins?
This one sorts the people who watched the pilot from the people who started on season two.
Show Answer
She’s a teacher. Specifically, she teaches middle school. The show leans into this hard in the early seasons before it becomes more of a background detail.
3. How much does putting a dollar in the Douchebag Jar cost? Or rather, what’s the standard fine?
Trick framing, but people bite on it every time. The jar doesn’t have a fixed fine. The question is really: what goes in the jar?
Show Answer
A dollar per offense. It’s Schmidt’s jar, maintained by the roommates, and the amount is almost always one dollar, though the group occasionally escalates it for particularly egregious Schmidt behavior.
4. What is Schmidt’s first name?
I’ve watched rooms full of people who swear they know this show go completely silent on this one. The show deliberately hid it for years, and when they finally revealed it, half the audience missed it.
Show Answer
Winston. His first name is Winston. Which creates the confusing reality that the loft has two Winstons. The reveal comes in season 6 and it’s played for exactly the absurdist comedy it deserves. Most people guess something like David or Steven, because their brain refuses to accept the joke.
5. What sport did Coach play professionally before becoming a personal trainer?
This is a trap, and I love setting it. People rush to answer.
Show Answer
Coach didn’t play any sport professionally. He was a personal trainer and gym employee. People confidently say football or basketball because Damon Wayans Jr. has that build and Coach has that energy, but the show never gives him a pro sports backstory.
The One Where You Start Second-Guessing Yourself
6. Why does Jess move into the loft in the first place?
Show Answer
She catches her boyfriend Spencer cheating on her and needs a new place to live. She finds the loft ad on Craigslist. The guys initially think she’s a man because of her name.
7. What is the name of Nick Miller’s unfinished novel?
Nick’s writing career is one of those running threads that people either remember vividly or have completely forgotten.
Show Answer
The Pepperwood Chronicles, based on his alter ego Julius Pepperwood. The novel is called “Z is for Zombie” and it’s spectacularly bad in the best way. Nick eventually gets it published in the final season.
8. Where is Julius Pepperwood from, according to Nick?
If you got the last one, you’re feeling confident now. Good. That’s where I want you.
Show Answer
Chicago. “Thin crust pizza? No thank you, I’m from Chicago.” It’s one of the most quotable Nick lines in the series, and people either nail this instantly or have no idea what you’re talking about.
9. What is Winston’s cat’s name?
Show Answer
Ferguson. Named after, yes, the football player. Winston’s relationship with Ferguson is one of the show’s most committed bits, and it only gets more unhinged as the seasons go on.
10. What does CeCe do for a living when we first meet her?
Show Answer
She’s a model. This is her career through the early seasons before she transitions to other work later in the series. People sometimes say bartender, which is what she does later, and that confusion is the whole point of asking.
11. In the drinking game True American, what beverage sits in the center of the playing field as “the king”?
Everyone remembers True American. Nobody can actually explain the rules. That’s sort of the joke.
Show Answer
A bottle of whiskey, specifically referred to as the king of the castle. The surrounding beers are “the pawns of the secret army.” The rules are deliberately incoherent, which is why every college student who tried to recreate this game ended up just drinking.
12. What instrument does Jess play (badly) in the pilot?
Show Answer
She doesn’t play an instrument in the pilot. She sings “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” while crying. People often say ukulele because Jess and ukuleles feel like they should go together, and Zooey Deschanel is associated with that kind of quirky musicality, but the ukulele doesn’t appear in the pilot.
13. What is the name of Nick’s father?
Show Answer
Walt Miller, played by Dennis Farina and later by Raymond J. Barry. Dennis Farina’s episodes are some of the best the show ever did, and his death in real life meant the show had to recast for later flashbacks.
14. Who does Schmidt end up marrying?
This should be easy. But I’ve seen it trip people up who stopped watching before the later seasons.
Show Answer
CeCe Parekh. Their wedding is in the season 5 finale. If you stopped watching around season 3 or 4 when things got rocky between them, you might not have seen it through.
Deeper Water
15. What is the name of the bar where Nick works?
Show Answer
The bar doesn’t have a consistent name in the early seasons, but it’s eventually established and Nick works there under the owner. The name most commonly associated with it is simply “the bar,” though it’s later identified as belonging to Nick’s boss. Many fans just call it “Nick’s bar.” The actual name that shows up is never as memorable as the place itself.
16. What is Jess’s middle name?
Her full name gets said maybe twice in seven seasons. This is the kind of detail that separates the rewatchers from everyone else.
Show Answer
Jessica Christopher Day. Her middle name is Christopher. It’s a small detail that the show drops casually, and it’s the kind of thing that makes people say “wait, really?” which is my favorite reaction to get from a trivia question.
17. Before moving to Los Angeles, what city did Winston live in while playing basketball?
Show Answer
Riga, Latvia. Winston was playing professional basketball in Latvia, which is why he wasn’t in the loft when Jess moved in. This is also why Coach was there for the pilot and then disappeared. When Winston came back from Latvia, Coach moved out.
18. Why did Coach leave the loft after the pilot episode, from a real-world production standpoint?
This is a behind-the-scenes question, and it’s fair game because it shaped the entire show.
Show Answer
Damon Wayans Jr. was contractually obligated to return to Happy Endings when ABC picked it up for another season. He came back to New Girl in season 3 after Happy Endings was cancelled. The show had to write him out after the pilot and replace him with Winston, which turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to the series.
19. What career does Winston eventually pursue after his basketball dreams end?
Show Answer
He becomes a police officer. But before that, he works at a radio station as an on-air personality. The radio job is the one people forget, because his arc as a cop is so much more prominent in the later seasons.
20. What is the name of Schmidt and Nick’s college friend who appears in several episodes, played by Nelson Franklin?
Show Answer
Robby. He’s not their college friend though, that’s the trap. Robby is CeCe’s boyfriend for a stretch, and he’s so aggressively nice that Schmidt can’t stand him. If you said “Benjamin” or another name, you’re mixing up your recurring characters.
21. In the episode “Cooler,” what game are the guys playing when Jess gets locked out?
This is one of the most important episodes in the series. The kiss episode. People remember the kiss. They don’t always remember what led to it.
Show Answer
True American. The guys are playing True American, and the game’s chaos is what creates the circumstances for Nick and Jess’s first real kiss. It’s the episode that proved True American wasn’t just a gag but an actual narrative device.
22. What is Nick Miller’s degree in?
Show Answer
Nick has a law degree. He went to law school but never took the bar exam. This is one of the show’s best running jokes: Nick is technically more educated than he lets on, but he’s chosen to be a bartender who doesn’t own a bank account. People usually guess he dropped out of college entirely, which says more about how well the show sold his character than anything.
The Questions That Start Arguments
23. How many seasons did New Girl run?
I include this because people get it wrong more than you’d think, and getting a number question wrong in front of your friends is a specific kind of humiliation.
Show Answer
Seven seasons, though the final season was a shortened 8-episode run. People often say six because they either didn’t watch the final season or they mentally round down because of how short it was.
24. What year is the final season of New Girl set in, relative to the rest of the show?
Show Answer
The final season jumps forward three years. It picks up in 2020, which means the show technically depicted 2020 before any of us lived through it. And no, there are no masks.
25. What is the name of Winston’s wife?
Show Answer
Aly, short for Alyson, played by Nasim Pedrad. But here’s where it gets interesting: Nasim Pedrad also played a different character earlier in the series, a woman named Aly who was not the same character. Just kidding. She plays Aly throughout. But people sometimes confuse her with Reagan, played by Megan Fox, who was Nick’s girlfriend. The loft had a lot of women cycling through.
26. Who played the role of Reagan, Nick’s girlfriend who temporarily moved into the loft?
Show Answer
Megan Fox. She joined during season 5 when Zooey Deschanel was on maternity leave. Opinions on this stretch of episodes are, let’s say, divided. I’ve seen this question spark genuine debates about whether the show worked without Jess at its center.
27. What is the name of Jess’s sister?
Show Answer
Abby Day, played by Linda Cardellini. She shows up and immediately causes chaos, which is exactly what you’d expect from a character designed to be Jess’s opposite. Linda Cardellini could play a tornado and make it sympathetic.
28. Who are Jess’s parents, and who plays them?
This one rewards people who paid attention to casting, which on this show was consistently excellent.
Show Answer
Joan Day, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and Bob Day, played by Rob Reiner. Later, Rob Reiner was replaced by Rob Riggle for a brief stint due to scheduling, but the primary pairing is Curtis and Reiner. Having Jamie Lee Curtis as your sitcom mom is the kind of flex that only works if the writing earns it, and it did.
29. What does Schmidt call his signature move when he takes off his shirt?
Show Answer
There isn’t one universally agreed-upon name for this, which is why I love asking it. Schmidt doesn’t name the move itself. What people remember is the attitude. If someone confidently gives you a specific name, they’re probably making it up, and that confidence is the most Schmidt thing possible.
30. What is the name of Schmidt’s mother?
Show Answer
Louise Schmidt, played by Nora Dunn. The dynamic between Schmidt and his mother explains about 80% of who he is as a person.
The Back Nine
31. What holiday does the gang celebrate in the episode that features the first True American game?
Show Answer
It’s not a holiday episode. The first True American game appears in “Normal,” season 1 episode 21. People often associate True American with a specific holiday because the game feels celebratory, but it’s just a random Tuesday in the loft.
32. What is the name of Nick’s ex-girlfriend who comes back into his life and causes problems, played by Lizzy Caplan?
Show Answer
Julia. She’s a lawyer, which creates an interesting tension given that Nick also went to law school but chose not to practice. Lizzy Caplan brought an energy to this role that made you understand exactly why Nick would be drawn to someone who was essentially his mirror opposite.
33. In what subject does Jess get her teaching credential?
Show Answer
English. She teaches English and creative writing at Coolidge Middle School. The school name is another one of those details that separates the obsessives from the normals.
34. What does Nick keep his money in instead of a bank account?
This is a character detail that tells you everything about Nick Miller in one image.
Show Answer
A box. Just a box. Not a safe, not under the mattress. A box. The show treats this as both a joke and a genuine window into Nick’s relationship with adult responsibility, and it works as both.
35. What is the name of the principal at Jess’s school, who becomes a recurring character?
Show Answer
Dr. Foster, played by Peter Gallagher. Those eyebrows brought a gravity to every scene they were in. The school scenes in New Girl are underrated, and Dr. Foster is a big reason why.
36. What does Winston become obsessed with that becomes a long-running joke about his tendency to go too far with things?
Winston’s “thing” is that he doesn’t have a thing, and then he has too much of a thing. This question is about the pattern more than any single instance.
Show Answer
Pranks. Winston’s pranks are either way too small or way too big, and he can never find the middle ground. “Prank Sinatra” is his self-given nickname, and the other characters’ exhaustion with his pranking is one of the show’s most reliable comedy engines in the later seasons.
37. What is the name of the woman Schmidt dates who is also named Schmidt?
Show Answer
Fawn Moscato, the city councilwoman, is who people usually guess, but she’s not named Schmidt. The trick is that there isn’t a woman he dates who is also named Schmidt. If you’re thinking of the “two Schmidts” confusion, that comes from his first name being Winston, not from a romantic interest sharing his last name. This question is designed to make people invent a memory that doesn’t exist.
38. What does Jess sing in the pilot that establishes her personality in about 15 seconds?
Show Answer
“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing, which she sings while sobbing on the couch. It’s the moment the show tells you exactly who Jessica Day is: someone who processes heartbreak through musical theatre energy and zero self-consciousness. Zooey Deschanel sold the entire premise of the show in that scene.
39. How many roommates does Jess have at the start of the series?
Count carefully. I’ve seen people blow this one in a room and refuse to believe the answer.
Show Answer
Three. Nick, Schmidt, and Coach. Not Winston. Winston doesn’t arrive until episode 2, replacing Coach. People who binged the show often merge the pilot and the second episode in their memory and say four, which is wrong in a way that feels right, and that’s the cruelest kind of trivia question.
Last Call
40. In the series finale, what do Nick and Jess name their son?
I save this one for last because it’s the question that reveals whether someone finished the show with their whole heart or just caught the highlights. The finale moved fast, and this detail got buried under the emotional weight of saying goodbye to these characters. When I ask it in a room, there’s always a pause. Not because people don’t care, but because they’re trying to remember a moment they felt rather than a fact they stored. And that’s what the best New Girl trivia does. It doesn’t test your memory. It tests whether you were paying attention during the moments that mattered.
Show Answer
They don’t explicitly name the baby in the finale in a way that becomes a universally remembered detail. The show focuses on the group dynamic in its final moments rather than the specifics. What people remember is the feeling of the loft emptying out, the game of True American, and the sense that these ridiculous people actually grew up. If you got this wrong, you’re in good company. If you got it right, you watched that finale with your eyes open and your phone down, and that’s worth more than any point.
Music and film rounds are where trivia nights either come alive or fall flat. I've been writing them in Madrid, Spain for 6 years, and I believe a good music question should make everyone at the table feel something, even when they get it wrong.
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