The Cardiff University team for the popular and prestigious quiz show University Challenge is set to take to screens this year and prove their knowledge against 27 other teams from universities across the UK. Organised by the Cardiff University Quiz Society, students took part in trials last October with five successfully making the team to play in the 2024–25 season of the show, with one student acting as a reserve. If they make it through five rounds of intense quizzing competition on subjects from Assyria to zebras and everything in between, they will have a chance to be crowned Series Champions for the first time in Cardiff University history.
For those who haven’t seen the show, 28 teams of four answer sets of questions both individually and as a team whilst under time pressure and the risk of penalties for incorrect answers. Many of the questions require advanced or niche knowledge from many fields such as the arts, sciences, humanities, and popular culture. Cardiff University has performed strongly in the past, reaching the quarter finals in both 1997 and 2014, as well as reaching the second round recently in the 2023–24 season.
The show was previously hosted by Jeremy Paxman, who stepped down in 2022 after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, and is now hosted by presenter and journalist Amol Rajan, who is currently on his second series of the show. Whilst discussing what to expect from the new series, Rajan said, “It’s been a summer of great competition on our screens, with high drama, tense finishes, and shining talent. The thrilling new series of University Challenge continues in that vein. And the standards are high, the students are magnificent, and the starters for 10 are as addictive as ever. Please join us!”
The Cardiff team will face the University of St. Andrews on your screens at 8.30pm on October 21st, live on BBC Two. If Cardiff are victorious, they will go into the second round with other winning teams from Bristol, Warwick, Exeter, Darwin College, Cambridge, Wadham College, Oxford, The Open University, Imperial College London, and Queen’s University Belfast. Make sure to tune in and cheer on our Cardiff University team on the 21st!
Oliver Morten | News Editor