NTN Trivia

NTN Trivia is a trivia game televised over a national network to over 3,000 bars and restaurants in the United States and Canada, as well as to Great Britain, though the North American and British networks are kept mostly separate. The National Trivia Network offers several different kinds of trivia games based on a variety of subjects, including world history, geography, sports, art, music, science, and even the opposite sex.

NTN Communications Template:Amex is based in Carlsbad, California.

How it works

NTN players use pads known as "Playmakers" to answer the questions that are displayed on the television screens. After each game, the top 20 individual winners as well as the top 20 establishments on the entire network (based on an average of the five highest scores at that establishment -- top six for Showdown) are broadcast in a "Network Rankings" summary for each game. Many teams gather together in their respective establishments to partake in the battle of wits.

Many frequent NTN players are enrolled in NTN's "Players Plus" program. Players earn Players Plus points by answering at least one question in each game, and can earn additional points by beating a target score that is given before the start of each game.

Games

The most frequently played NTN game is Countdown, which is a game of 15 multiple choice questions (with five possible answers) on a variety of topics. Players can earn up to 1,000 points per question based on how fast they answer; the number of points decrease as time passes. Clues are given to help the player eliminate incorrect choices, with the third clue alluding to what the correct answer is. The answer is given once time runs out. A score of 15,000 is considered a "perfect" score.

Several specialty games use the Countdown format but are based on a single subject. Some of the more commonly played games are Get Reel! and RetroacTiVe, which focus on movies and classic television shows, respectively. Topix is a series of 15 questions based on one topic, which changes with each game, and Abused News is a game based on current events with a focus on offbeat news stories. A variation of Countdown is Wipeout, where no clues are given; instead, incorrect answers are eliminated until there are only two left.

During the week, several "premium" trivia games are played. Most of them are usually an hour long.

• Sports Trivia Challenge on Sundays
• Sports IQ on Mondays
• Showdown, a 75-minute general knowledge trivia game, on Tuesdays. After Showdown a 15-minute game called Speed, where 18 rapid-fire questions are asked, is played. This is followed by the 30-minute Mini-Six, a short version of the Thursday game. This combination, combined with the supposed prestige of Showdown, usually results in a high turnout for the Tuesday premium games.
• Passport, featuring questions about a specific geographic area, on Wednesdays
• Six, a Trivial Pursuit-style game where the questions are grouped into six categories, on Thursdays
• Spotlight, an entertainment trivia game, on Fridays
• Playback, a music trivia game, on Saturdays

QB1 is an interactive game that NTN offers to participating locations during NFL and college football games. Players earn points by correctly predicting which plays the offense will make during the game. QB1 is NTN's oldest game, having premiered during Super Bowl XVIII in 1984.

In the past, NTN Trivia was also available over online services such as the now-defunct ImagiNation Network.

In 2004, NTN launched the Blast channel that is available as a second channel to participating establishments. This channel features games such as blackjack and (starting in early 2005) Texas hold 'em poker.

External links

• NTN corporate website (http://www.ntn.com)
• NTN Blast website (http://www.ntn.com/blast/)
• Official QB1 website (http://www.qb1.com)
• Buzz Time online version of NTN (http://www.buzztime.com)