11-07-2025
The 10 best TV quiz shows — ranked by our critic
Trivia fans can rejoice this week as Mastermind and University Challenge return to our screens, making Quiz Monday appointment to view television once again each week.
But how do these titans of quizzing sit among the very best quiz shows from TV history? Well, there's only one way to find out.
I've ranked the top trivia quiz shows from ten to one. The list is based on 'pure quizzing' formats that rely primarily on answering questions rather than involving other activities like spelling and counting (Countdown), playing darts (Bullseye) or comedy panel shows with quizzing (QI). That's not to say those excluded aren't great shows, they are just not eligible for this list.
What do you think is the greatest trivia quiz format? Let us know in the comments below …
This general knowledge show ran between 1987 and 1996 and was hosted by the great Henry Kelly, who died this year. Going for Gold, with its theme tune by Hans Zimmer, was the dessert to your lunchtime helping of Neighbours. A kind of quiz equivalent of Eurovision Song Contest, the show in all its eccentric glory brought together the great and the good of quizzing from across the Continent to battle it out in quickfire trivia quizzes for the chance to progress to the final and perhaps win a holiday. It had lots of questions and plenty of laughs. It sent a message to all other quiz-makers: 'Now you're playing catch-up.'
It's fair to say that not everyone is immediately on board with Only Connect, the most complicated quiz on TV. However, once you get past the complexities and oddities of the format in the good hands of its super-host, Victoria Coren Mitchell, you'll quickly be drawn into a world of hardcore quizzing and puzzling conundrums. Relaxed and engaging but requiring more lateral thinking than most quiz formats, Only Connect is a show that's rightfully won a large and loyal fanbase.
There isn't another quiz in which the presenter feels so important to the format. Not just because he's part of the title, but because Richard Osman's calm, friendly and irreverent spirit runs through this format like a name through a stick of rock. On the face of it, the games aren't 'serious', and because it involves celebrity contestants the stakes should be low. However, it's impossible not to get drawn into this friendly, funny and addictively playable game from the moment it arrives in your living room. It's like the kind of Christmas family game nights that you think people might have somewhere, but have never been to yourself.
University Challenge, based on the American format College Bowl, has been a mainstay of the British TV schedules since 1962. The format and set is the stuff of screen legend, immortalised by The Young Ones and the subject of the fabulous Brit-flick Starter For 10. If there is a problem with the show it would be that the questions are too hard. However, that's the point of the programme: to challenge the best and brightest of academia, so for the general viewer just getting a few questions right makes you feel smart.
Which 'B' is one of the best-loved quiz formats on British television? Hosted by Bob Holness for a wonderful decade between 1983 and 1993, Blockbusters not only had a ripping theme tune, it had the quirk of single players competing against teams of two to make it across a giant honeycomb-board full of letters. Famed for its youthful contestants with mascots and the gold run with prizes like a Walkman or camping equipment, this show will for ever belong in the hearts of the true quiz fan.
• Fingers on buzzers — it's the ultimate quizmasters' quiz!
One of the purest of quiz formats, this is all about quickfire trivia. Hosted with aplomb by the firm but fair William G Stewart (1988-2003), then Sandi Toksvig (2014-19), this most brilliant of quiz shows had few bells and whistles (just buzzers and illuminated life bars). It formed an essential part of a golden quiz hour on Channel 4 in the afternoon alongside Countdown.
The black chair under a single spotlight, the daunting music and the catchphrase 'I've started so I'll finish' make Mastermind an icon of British television. But more than the aesthetics and atmosphere, this is a show that showcases two of the best of British: weird niche knowledge and nerdiness alongside hardcore pub quiz trivia. While the viewer can marvel at the depth of a contestant's insight into something they don't understand in the first round, in the second round everyone's in the room for some good old-fashioned general knowledge. Perfect.
• Is Clive Myrie right to call the Mastermind final 'TV's toughest quiz'?
A tip-top Bradley Walsh on presenting duties, a brash professional quizzer with a silly nickname and four amateur pub quizzers trying to beat the teacher — what could go wrong? Nothing, that's what. The show combines a lot of fast-paced quizzing (especially in the breathless final chase) with plenty of banter and silliness in a format that has enough changes of pace to earn a full hour of your television attention. It's no wonder it remains one of the biggest bankers for ITV.
I must declare an interest here. I went on The Weakest Link when I was in my twenties. And whereas meeting your heroes can often leave you feeling less enthusiastic, I must admit that my experience of seeing inside the factory (Pinewood Studios back then) only made me love it more. A true quiz phenomenon overseen first by a stern but knowing Anne Robinson, and latterly by the comedian Romesh Ranganathan, the show manages to combine quizzing with a devious format that doesn't always mean the person with all the answers wins. (I didn't.)
• Anne Robinson proves we're right wing — and judges are the weakest link
Co-created by Peaky Blinders's Steven Knight (alongside David Briggs and Mike Whitehill), Millionaire changed British quizzing when it was launched in 1998. The show offered an unimaginably large prize for answering just 15 multiple choice questions — and you even got lifelines. The beauty of the game is how simple it seems and just how tricky it is to not only know the answers but to have the confidence to risk losing vast sums as you move up the ladder. Chris Tarrant set the template for the encouraging host willing the contestant on along with the viewer, a role that Jeremy Clarkson has continued in the reboot. It's the ultimate quiz show on every level. Long live Millionaire.
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