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Widely regarded as the "Father of Indian television quizzing," Basu hosted Mastermind India and University Challenge, among many others. However, he is best known as the producer-director of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the licensed Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which was hosted by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan. The show was as much a sensation in India as it was in the US and UK, even inspiring the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.
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The pub quiz was born in England in the mid-70s, when Burns and Porter started promoting the concept as a way to bring in crowds on off nights. The idea took off and soon 10,000 people were playing every week, many of whom later appeared on quiz shows. Structured like a sports league, bar teams would play each other in home and away games. They even spun off three books before selling their company (also called Burns and Porter) to Prism Leisure Corporation in 1988.
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Few UK quizzers can challenge Kevin Ashman. Gibson is one of them, regularly appearing at #1 in the IQA's ranking of the world's quizzers, winning its global championship repeatedly and anchoring England's team in IQA events. The Irish-born Egghead panellist has won the top prize on the original Who Wants to be a Millionaire. And he's won Brain of Britain. He is not only been a Mastermind champion, but was crowned the Mastermind Champion of Champions.
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After Holzhauer appeared on the US version of The Chase in 2014, Mark "the Beast" Labett called him the best player who had ever appeared on The Chase, anywhere in the world. On Jeopardy, he "lawn-mowed" the lower rows, then bet aggressively on Daily Doubles. He not only broke Roger Craig's one-day record, but did so 16 times. He beat Frank Spangenberg's 29-year-old record for a five-day total, and reached the $1 million and $2 million marks in record time.
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Buzztime (then called NTN) jumped into the trivia business in 1987 with what are still its signature games, Showdown and Countdown. The top team is the Fellowship, from northeast Ohio. Since they were founded in 2004, they're been shattering records in the marquee events, routinely becoming each year's top Showdown team. Kern is its "leader" and statistician, but the Fellowship's success has depended on the contributions of dozens of players over the years, all of whom share this honor.
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Stevens Point, Wisconsin, may be tiny, but WWSP90-FM's annual 54-hour marathon radio trivia contest is the most famous of its kind. Founded by Tim Donovan and Nick Ryan in 1969, it grew to some 12,000 people after Oliva took over in 1979, becoming the world's largest trivia event. Many of the players come back year after year, bonding as a community. There is even a parade. And a movie. Oliva announced he was passing the torch to David Coulthurst in 2021.
