It's Academic

[Esquivalient]

Just finished Brainiac. What a fine job of writing. Mr. Jennings must read some John McPhee, as he did so well at interweaving the history of trivia with his personal quest on Jeopardy!.

Since I am getting old, I got only about 80% of the 'reference' questions.

Here is a real question:

What is the longest running quiz program on TV?

Answer is a quote from their webpage:

Move over, “Jeopardy!” The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized IT’S ACADEMIC as the longest-running TV quiz show in the world!

This fall, IT’S ACADEMIC, the nation’s foremost high school quiz program, will begin its 46th season on NBC4 in Washington, DC. This is a unique achievement in the ephemeral world of television, where shows come and go---often not lasting a full 13 weeks.

I really wish that Mr. Jennings had found a Saturday to sit through the tapings at Channel 4 in D. C. He would have seen high school kids doing what he loves to do best. ALSO he might have see the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology team, who he mentions in Brainiac, competing in this their local challenge.

My bias about It's Academic is that the team from Montgomery Blair H. S. that I co-coached won the D. C. and over-all championship in 1995.

[iautah]

It's Academic has appeared in many more places than Washington, D.C. See U.S. Senate Resolution 253 at the following link for a list of locations: http://www.rit.edu/~agd3479/imm/ices/itsacademic.html

I competed in It's Academic three times in the Buffalo, New York media market, for Niagara Wheatfield High School - once in the 1980-1981 season (we won a close game, but did not have enough points to make the semi-finals - at that time the nine highest winning scores advanced to the semi-finals) and twice in the 1981-1982 season (we won our first game with just enough points to end up ninth, allowing us to get beaten badly by #1 seed and frequent winner Hutchinson Central Technical High School in the semi-finals).

What really struck me in high school was how much easier the questions were on It's Academic than on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) quiz show for high school students, Reach for the Top. Does anyone here remember Reach for the Top?

Iautah