Academic competition series launches Season 12, Twitch game and Alexa skill

BOSTON (December 15, 2020) – Boston public media producer GBH’s High School Quiz Show today announced Season 12 of the popular academic competition series while also introducing new digital features to the fan experience, including an interactive play-along stream of Season 5 on Twitch and an Alexa skill voiced by High School Quiz Show host Billy Costa. The broadcast of Season 12 will air on GBH 2 and GBH’s YouTube channel, while the innovative experiences on Twitch and Amazon Alexa devices provide opportunities for local, national, and international High School Quiz Show fans to engage with the show more interactively than ever before, including the chance to compete with other fans and past contestants.

High School Quiz Show is a bracket-style academic competition for teams of Massachusetts high school students, broadcast annually on GBH 2. Aside from Jeopardy!, High School Quiz Show is the most popular academic quiz show on American television. Over eleven previous seasons, more than 700 students from over 70 schools across the state have competed on the broadcast.

“As students across the Commonwealth and across the country have had to adjust to at-home learning this year, we are excited to introduce innovative ways to celebrate knowledge and include new audiences,” said Jon Abbott, president and CEO of GBH. “This year, students and families will have the opportunity to test what they know against High School Quiz Show veterans in a fast-paced Twitch game week by week.”

High School Quiz Show’s Season 12 will kick off with the annual Super Sunday event, which will be held virtually on January 24th, 2021. Schools from across the state will field teams of four students, tasked with taking an online quiz that covers a range of subjects, from literature and science to math, history and culture. The top 17 teams will move forward in Season 12, premiering on Saturday, April 3 at 6pm on GBH 2.

“High School Quiz Show is now a highly anticipated annual event for Massachusetts schools and communities to celebrate and showcase the academic prowess of their students,” said GBH Executive Producer and Director of Youth Media Hillary Wells. “In a year in which the majority of academic and athletic competitions available to students have been compromised, delayed or cancelled, we are committed to rewarding existing and newly formed teams for their passion, dedication and teamwork. As High School Quiz Show coaches across the Commonwealth have stated in support of their students, ‘the show must go on!’.”

In addition to this year’s televised tournament, High School Quiz Show has adapted the television broadcast of Season 5 for an interactive streaming experience on the GBH Twitch channel, which began on December 10th. Viewers everywhere are invited to participate and play along, allowing players to test themselves against peers and the Season 5 contestants as the broadcast streams. The multiple-choice games are streaming Mondays and Thursdays starting at 5pm ET at twitch.tv/gbhmedia.

Fans also will be able to play along from Amazon Alexa devices beginning in January by prompting a brand new Alexa skill, which will feature a new five-question category each week of the year, voiced by Costa.

The deadline for Massachusetts high schools to register for Super Sunday is Friday, January 15. Schools interested in participating can register online at https://www.wgbh.org/quiz-show/register.

High School Quiz Show is endorsed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education and the Massachusetts PTA. Questions on the show are aligned with the Massachusetts high school curriculum standards in subjects that include literature, history, civics, science and math, as well as current events, and general knowledge. Major funding for High School Quiz Show is provided by Safety Insurance. Additional funding is provided by the Museum of Science, Massachusetts Teachers Association, XFINITY from Comcast, Eastern Bank, Emerson College and Subaru of New England.

For more information, visit highschoolquizshow.org and twitch.tv/gbhmedia and follow the show on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About GBH
GBH is the leading multiplatform creator for public media in America. As the largest producer of content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX, GBH delivers compelling experiences, stories and information to audiences wherever they are. GBH produces digital and broadcast programming that engages, illuminates and inspires, through drama and science, history, arts, culture and journalism. It is the creator of such signature programs as MASTERPIECE, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, FRONTLINE, NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, Arthur and Molly of Denali and a catalog of streaming series, podcasts and on-demand video. GBH’s television channels include GBH 2, GBH 44, GBH Kids and national services WORLD and Create. With studios and a newsroom headquartered in Boston, GBH reaches across New England with GBH 89.7, Boston’s Local NPR; CRB Classical 99.5; and CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station. Dedicated to making media accessible to and inclusive of our diverse culture, GBH is a pioneer in delivering media to those who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired. GBH creates curriculum-based digital content for educators nationwide with PBS LearningMedia and has been recognized with hundreds of the nation’s premier broadcast, digital and journalism awards. Find more information at gbh.org.
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