Calling all trivia lovers: if you watch Jeopardy! on the nightly, do you ever wish you could add some variety to your television palette? Or do you dare to admit that you’re a little sick of Jeopardy!? (Don’t worry, you’re not the only one!) Maybe you’re just looking for something else if Jeopardy! isn’t on or in place of Jeopardy! reruns. Never fear: we at Trivia Bliss have got you covered.
We get it—you simply can’t get enough of good trivia-based television, and we’re right there with you. What should be next on your watchlist?
Look no further: we’ve compiled a list of the very best and most awesome game shows geared towards Jeopardy! lovers. Below are our eight favorite trivia game shows—besides Jeopardy!, of course! If you watch any of the shows below, you’re sure to get your trivia fix and grow your knowledge while you’re at it. Keep scrolling to find out our eight picks for awesome trivia shows.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
One of America’s most beloved game shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? has some pretty high stakes. In it, players must answer questions correctly to try to win a million dollars—but if they get a question wrong, they’re immediately eliminated, and their cash prize is knocked down a peg. In its 22-season history, only 12 contestants have ever won the million-dollar cash reserve.
Though it was originally a British hit, now over 100 countries internationally have their own version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The U.S. version has boasted an array of celebrity hosts over the years, including Regis Philbin, Meredith Viera, Chris Harrison, and Terry Crews. No matter your country of origin, this franchise has a version for you.
Each episode’s filmed competition features a single contestant attempting to answer 15 multiple-choice questions. Some naysayers might reject that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is truly a trivia game because the questions are given in a multiple-choice format. But with tough queries like “who did artist Grant Wood use as the model for the farmer in his classic painting American Gothic?” and “the Earth is approximately how many miles away from the sun?” the show is sure to tickle your trivia fancy, nonetheless.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire airs on the Game Show Network and ABC every weekday, so you have plenty of opportunities to catch an episode throughout the week. Check your local TV listings to find out when to tune in.
The Chase
Much like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, The Chase was adapted from a British television show with the same premise. In both games, teams of three or four contestants compete against a trivia expert known as the “Chaser.”
First, the contestants answer a rapid-fire round of quiz trivia questions, trying to earn as much prize money as possible in only one minute. This round is called the Cash Builder, as the earnings from this round will build each contestant’s future cash reserve, also known as the fund from which their eventual prize money will be pulled.
After the Cash Builder, it’s time for the contestants to go head to head against the Chaser. They place themselves on one of several starting positions on a gameboard. The starting position they choose can change depending on whether they’d prefer to play for more money or if they’d like to start a few steps ahead of the chaser but compete with lower stakes.
Then, the questions start to roll in. Each individual contestant races against the clock and the Chaser to try to get to the end of the gameboard’s path. If a contestant answers a question incorrectly or misses a turn because they typed their answer too slowly, the Chaser can gain on them. Contestants can progress to a final round if they make it to the end without missing too many turns. However, if the Chaser passes them on the board, they lose the entire game and forfeit all of their earnings.
Pretty intricate, right? The Chase is a stimulating and fast-paced watch that’s sure to keep you engaged and interested. It airs on GSN and ABC, and its first couple of seasons are available to stream on Netflix. This game show is especially apt for Jeopardy! fans as, you may have already noticed, it features a few of Jeopardy!’s most winningest champs!
Brain Games
If you’re interested in picking your brain but you’re tired of traditional game show formats, try giving National Geographic’s Brain Games a watch. Unlike many other game shows, Brain Games doesn’t have a huge jackpot money prize—the competitors compete only for a trophy. There’s also no set gameplay that carries over from episode to episode. Instead, each episode features different mini-games to implore contestants and viewers to question their belief systems and work their brains in new and interesting ways.
The original Brain Games was hosted by Jason Silva, and the show was often edited in a way that made it feel like a documentary. Mini-games were played by various folks from all walks of life in cities around the world, and these games were interspersed with scientific facts and explanations.
Now, the show has been renewed to feature two teams of four contestants playing against each other. It’s still full of games that’ll help to grow your brain, but now it plays out more like the game shows you already know and love. New host Chuck Nice helps make the show more family-oriented and engages the live studio audience well. Fun fact: the first season of the reboot was filmed outside for social distancing and COVID safety purposes, but it became such a fun part of the show that they’re planning on keeping all of their filmings outdoors from now on!
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? is a game show in which contestants answer elementary school-level trivia questions with the help of a group of kids who are in the fifth grade. They answer the questions alongside the students to compete for cash and can “cheat” off of their “classmates” if they need a clue. The show’s contestants ranged from average Janes and Joes to famous celebrity guests, such as Regis Philbin, Gene Simmons, and Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings. These competitors were vying for a million-dollar prize, but one slip-up too early in the game, and they could go home without a single cent.
An interesting part of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was seeing how little knowledge the adult contestants had retained from elementary school. If the show was trying to make a point about how little of the information taught in the American school system is necessary to function in adult life, then perhaps it succeeded, but we’ll let you be the judge of that!
Additionally, it’s hard when you’re an adult competing against kiddos who study a variety of school subjects on the daily! Even though the adult competitors had decades of experience and knowledge on their sides, the kids had a lot of the trivia questions on the forefront of their brains already because of the variable nature of elementary school. Their memories were most likely refreshed every day at school, while the adults would have to study up to succeed.
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was one of my favorite shows growing up. I loved watching adults try (and often fail!) to prove themselves smarter than the elementary school kids featured on each episode. It was also enjoyable to find out which trivia facts were attributed to different grade levels and measure my own elementary school-level knowledge up against the questions asked on the show. The show also had a cute and catchy theme song that still gets stuck in my head to this day.
Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?’s history was somewhat tumultuous: the show only has four seasons with quite a few gaps in production, and it’s aired on Fox, Nickelodeon, and other networks through broadcast syndication.
Jeff Foxworthy and John Cena have both hosted the show—how’s that for star power? Both of these funny, entertaining guys have made awesome hosts that keep audiences engaged and kids and contestants on their A-game.
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? can be streamed on PlutoTV or purchased for viewing on YouTube or Vudu. Watch along and find out if you yourself are smarter than a band of fifth graders!
Weakest Link
If you’ve ever thought Jeopardy! should be even faster-paced and a little vindictive, then Weakest Link is the game show for you. Its trivia questions are tough, and the competition is stiff. In other words, it makes for a great show to watch from the edge of your seat!
Weakest Link lives up to its cruel name by playing into humiliation in its eliminations. How so, you ask? Each round, contestants vote on who the least valuable player is, and the person with the most votes is booted off the show without any prize money. This is not always determined by who is statistically the worst player. In fact, the best and worst players are singled out ahead of the elimination based on how many questions they answered correctly or incorrectly. These players are called, in turn, the “Strongest Link” and the “Weakest Link,” giving the show its title.
On Weakest Link (also known as The Weakest Link, depending on which country the show is being aired in), contestants attempt to bolster their earnings by answering many questions in succession as a team. Each question answered correctly adds a “link” to a figurative money chain. The more questions answered correctly, the longer the chain grows. However, a single wrong answer can reset the chain to zero, leaving the team bereft. See why it’s important to get the weaker players out of the way early on in the game?
This type of gameplay continues until there are only two players left. The final two players answer five questions each, and whoever has answered more correctly takes home every last cent of the prize money accumulated by the team throughout gameplay. If there’s a tie and both players answer the same number of questions correctly, the two engage in rapid-fire trivia until one of them has a wrong answer. The winner takes it all, and the loser goes home with nothing.
A game of Weakest Link isn’t complete without the host (currently, it’s Jane Lynch) uttering the show’s famous catchphrase upon every elimination: “You are the weakest link, goodbye!”
Cherries Wild
Like its title suggests, Cherries Wild is a somewhat zany game show. Its title comes from Pepsi’s Wild Cherry flavor, as the soda company sponsored the show.
This game involves a little luck, but it still requires some serious trivia chops to do well. Players try to answer questions correctly in order to earn “Wild Cherries,” which carry over to the end of the game and translate into cash. Pretty sweet, right?
Parts of the game are formatted in a slot machine-like way, so players spin a machine to answer a true or false “Fact or Fiction” question. Later, contestants must come up with questions to align with answers that the slot machine provides. By the end of the game, players will have had chances to earn cash by answering questions correctly and playing surprise chance-based mini games. At the end, players can opt to take their “Cash Stash” home with them or gamble for even more winnings.Cherries Wild currently only has one season, and it has yet to be renewed by Fox for a second. If you’re a fan, stream as much as you can to try to up its popularity—its cancellation hasn’t been confirmed yet either, so there’s still a chance it could continue to air new episodes!
Master Minds
If you find yourself watching the Game Show Network at your leisure, chances are you’ve stumbled upon their original trivia show, Master Minds. Formerly titled Best Ever Trivia Show, Master Minds is somewhat similar to Jeopardy!. However, it has one major difference that adds a little variety. In addition to three average contestants, like there are on Jeopardy!, the show also brings on three trivia experts to play alongside, and eventually against, the former three.
And these experts might be folks you know of. For example, Master Minds regularly features trivia whiz Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame on the show. During its first season, the regular contestants could get help from the trivia experts. However, from its second season onward, the experts (or “Master Minds”) and regular contestants all face off against each other.
Experts and contestants either answer at the same time or in succession after being isolated from one another so as to avoid any cheating. Sometimes, rounds consist of buzzing in and speaking each answer aloud, while others ask players to write down their answers, which are later revealed to the host and the audience.
Master Minds is a complex game perfect for if you want to watch some killer trivia-loving folks face off against some of the best game show competitors of our time.
The Million Second Quiz
While it was on air, The Million Second Quiz had a truly unique premise. On the show, contestants had one million seconds (a.k.a. 11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds) to answer trivia questions around the clock and compete to win two million dollars. And when we say around the clock, we really mean it—the game went on for 24 hours a day for its entire duration. Players lived in an hourglass-shaped set on a Manhattan rooftop for the duration of the game, and host Ryan Seacrest narrated the strange week and a half-long endeavor.
The Million Second Quiz featured plenty of unusual components. For one, the contestant that was in the lead sat in the “Money Chair” and earned ten dollars per second that they sat in it. Sounds like a pretty good hourly rate, if you ask us! The contestants received ten minutes off per hour to serve as a bathroom break, but for the rest of the time, they were answering question after question trying to boost their earnings.
As the game progressed, other players would challenge the contestant sitting in the money chair to a bout, in which the two would spar head to head, trivia-style. If the player in the money chair lost a bout, they’d forfeit their seat to their opponent. Only the four contestants who had the most money after their bouts progressed on to “Winners’ Row,” a living situation from which they could be displaced if another player out-earned them. All in all, The Million Second Quiz was awfully competitive!
Though the series had mixed reviews—some critics thought the show was confusing and hard for viewers to follow—it’s an interesting watch that’s worth your time if you’ve got a few hours in which to binge watch 10 episodes.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this round-up of awesome shows for the Jeopardy! lover. If you want an even more comprehensive list of all the trivia game shows that air in the United States, we at Trivia Bliss have got one for you right here. Either way, we are here for you with all of the trivia show recommendations you could possibly need. Feel free to refer back to this list the next time you’re looking for a fun new show to watch. And if you’re looking for something a little more interactive, check out Netflix’s new series Trivia Quest.
Did you find a new favorite show from this list? Or do you have a favorite trivia show we missed? Let us know by leaving a comment down below.
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