University Challenge is a long-running British television quiz show. The format is based on College Bowl, which is credited in the end title, and is licensed and produced by Granada Television.

At its inception in 1962 it was hosted by Bamber Gascoigne. When audience figures began to fall, changes to the long-standing format of the programme only made things worse and it was taken off the air in 1987. It was eventually revived in 1994 by the BBC (although still produced by Granada), using the original format (with minor differences) and presented by Jeremy Paxman. The current tournament format used for a series is that of a direct knockout tournament starting with 28 teams. The 14 first round winners progress directly to the last 16. Two repechage matches, involving the four highest scoring losing teams from the first round whose losing scores often exceeded winning scores in other first round matches, fill the remaining places in the last 16.

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, University Challenge was placed 34th.

Format
Teams consist of four members and represent a single university or Oxford, Cambridge, Wales or London college. "Starter" questions are answered individually "on the buzzer" without conferring, and are worth 10 points. The team answering a starter correctly gets a set of "bonus" questions worth a potential fifteen points, over which they can confer. Sets of bonus questions are thematically linked, although they rarely share a connection with the preceding starter question. Occasionally, rather than three separate questions worth five points each, a bonus will require the enumeration of a given list with 5, 10 or 15 points given for correctly giving a certain number of items from the list (eg, "there are six SI units of measurement. Give four for 5 points, 5 for 10 points or all 6 for 15 points"). An incorrect interruption of a starter results in a five point penalty. In the course of a game there are two "picture rounds" (occuring roughly one quarter and three quarters of the way through) and one "music round" (at the halfway point), where the subsequent bonuses are connected thematically to the starter; if a picture or music starter is not correctly answered, the accompanying bonus questions are held back until a normal starter is correctly answered. The pace of questioning gradually increases through the show, becoming almost frantic in the last minute or so before the "gong" which signals the end of the game. In the event of a tied score at the sound of the gong, a "sudden death" question is asked, the first team to answer correctly being deemed the winner; this is repeated until one or other of the teams answer correctly, or a team loses by giving an incorrect interruption.

While the starter questions are being read out, the teams are shown on screen one above the other by means of a split-screen effect. When a player buzzes in, the shot zooms in to that player, accompanied by a voice-over identifying the player by team and surname, for example "Nottingham, Smith". The voiceovers are performed live in the studio by the show's announcer and become noticeably more energetic towards the end of the programme. The original announcer was Jim Pope, who stayed with the programme from 1963 until his death in 2002. Since then, the announcer has been Roger Tilling.

The fact that Oxbridge colleges can enter singly was the ostensible reason behind a bizarre 1975 protest. A team from the University of Manchester (which included David Aaronovitch) who were appearing on the show answered every question "Trotsky" or "Lenin", possibly in the (vain) hope of making the resulting show unbroadcastable. It did however get broadcast, although the episode no longer exists in the archives of Granada TV.


1994 revival
Although the show has since its revival in 1994 featured a number of very high-standard teams with members of a student age, one trend has been an increasing number of teams which have featured mature students, who are thought to have the advantage of a greater breadth of general knowledge. The Open University won the 1999 series with a team whose age averaged 46, and included a member (Lance Haward) who had only applied to study for his distance-learning degree in order to appear on the show. The 2003 final was contested between two teams of mature students, with Birkbeck College, London, defeating Cranfield University. The producers of the programme have taken this development to its logical conclusion by making two series without any student participants: University Challenge Reunited (2002) brought former teams back together, while University Challenge: The Professionals (2003, 2004 and 2005) matched occupational groups such as civil servants, architects and doctors against each other. In 2003, the former was won by the 1979 team from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, the latter by a team from the Inland Revenue, the UK tax office and equivalent of the IRS. The 2004 Professionals series was won by the British Library, and the 2005 series by the Privy Council.


Spinoff shows
Sixth Form Challenge, hosted by Chris Kelly, appeared briefly in 1966-7.

University Challenge ran in New Zealand for 14 seasons, from 1976 until 1989, with international series held between the previous years' British and New Zealand champions in both 1986 and 1987.

University Challenge India started in Summer 2003, culminating in the finals of March 2004 where Sardar Patel College of Engineering (SPCE), Bombay, beat Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The Indian winners went on to beat the finalists from the UK show, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. UC India is produced by BBC World India, and Synergy communications, co-owned by Siddhartha Basu, who also hosts the show. The 2004 season saw the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), Delhi defeat the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.

The show has seen numerous specials, including those for specific professions and celebrity editions.