It's Academic (Australian game show)
It's Academic is an Australian children's game show which is based on the long-running American version of It's Academic, and pits students from different schools against each other in a test of knowledge covering a number of diverse subjects including English, mathematics, science, geography, sport, music and popular culture.
History
The show originally aired on Network Ten from 1968 and 1969 being hosted by John Bailey and then on the Seven Network from 1970 to 1978. In the years 2001 to 2004, Seven Perth revived the show, where it was broadcast locally, leading to a national relaunch on 17 October 2005. The last version on 7TWO featured primary school children in Grade 6 aged around 11/12 years old.The early incarnation of It's Academic was the basis for a series of sketches from The Late Show in which Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner, who all claimed to have gone to the same school, competed on the program with incredible but humorous incompetence. Coincidentally their sometime collaborator, actor/comedian Magda Szubanski had actually captained a team while a Year 10 student at Siena College in Melbourne, in 1976.
Hosts in the 1970s included Danny Webb,Trevor Sutton BTQ-7 Andrew Harwood, Sandy Roberts, Alec McAskill, Jeff Newman and John Bailey. In recent years, Jeff Newman once again hosted Perth's version of It's Academic while Simon Reeve fronts the national version.
Format
Original format
The 1960s-70s version of It's Academic was conducted on an each state basis with episodes featuring teams of three on air contestants with an official fourth as reserve, from each of three different high schools from that state. Contestants were aged around 15 years, in Year Ten at High School. Winning teams would progress through to state semi-finals and finals. In many years, state champion teams met in a national grand finals. Shows were recorded with large live audiences on Saturdays with school staff representatives supervising the contest.In early rounds, team captains would 'pick a packet' from a board of numbered options. Teams could answer these questions with no penalties for incorrect answers but each round was time limited and teams would 'pass' difficult questions to attempt remaining questions before returning to passed questions. All team members could respond to questions; in cases where two answers were given at the same time, the host would ask the captain to confirm the team's response. A 'beat the buzzer' segment and later a video-clip round completed the contest. In 'beat the buzzer', penalties applied for incorrectly answered questions. In cases of ties, captains would pick tie-breaker packets for their team to answer.
State contestants usually received Schaeffer or Parker pen sets as mementos, with additional prizes awarded to the winning school. In the original series, cash prizes of $500 to each team member were awarded to the state team final winners. National prizes differed but were of a similar financial value. In 1971, the national championship team was flown to Los Angeles and toured Hollywood.
The pilot and first two years of the Australian series were recorded by Network Ten, on Saturdays, at the North Ryde TEN10 studios in Sydney NSW and also in Victoria. The first two NSW seasons 1968 and 1969 were hosted by John Bailey and both series finals were won by Marist Brothers Eastwood. The show moved to the Seven Network in 1970 and was recorded at the ATN 7 Mobbs Lane studios at Epping NSW, with a new host Andrew Harwood. Marist Brothers Eastwood again made it to the 1970 series final but were defeated on that occasion.
In 1970 an "Its Academic Challenge" series, being an interstate contest involving all of the three teams from each State that competed in that State's championship round, was also recorded. In 1971, a team from Inala State High School in Queensland won the It's Academic Challenge final.
Revived format
The 2008 version features six new schools every week, the winning schools to reappear later in the season for semi-finals and Grand Finals. Each individual episode features five teams, each made up of six members from each school. There is a new feature called the "Clean Sweep" it only occurs when a team answers all questions correct in the first round. The correct answer will award the team with 20 points.The question rounds consist of a series of 5 aimed at one team only. Players are given five seconds to answer, or longer for a spelling question, and may confer amongst themselves before giving an answer. If two students answer differently at once, the team captain is asked to select one answer.
The Random Spotlight selects a member of the team at 'random'. They are then asked a question about their chosen topic, which can be absolutely anything ranging from academic subjects such as spelling or history, to more specific topics such as capital cities or outer space, to pop culture themed topics.
Unlike the question rounds, Beat the Buzzer is open for all teams to answer. Simon Reeve reads out questions to all contestants, who buzz in to answer. This is the most competitive segment of the show as teams attempt to buzz in before other teams in order to score points. Beat the Buzzer is a speed round lasting for 45 seconds. If the team answers a question after time is up, the team would not gain or lose 10 points regardless if it's right or wrong.
The information segment was introduced in Season 2. It consists of Lizzy Lovette and later Sally Stanton giving a brief report on a particular topic. Teams are asked a 10-point buzz-in question on the topic to make sure they were listening. Initially the team who correctly answered the question also won the right to be the first team to get their question round, but was later dropped. No points are lost if a team answers the question incorrectly, but will be locked out in the next question. Should this happen, another question would be asked by Reeve for the remaining teams.
In Watch This Space, contestants are shown a one-minute video clip on a certain subject, about which they are then asked three to five questions. All teams compete on the buzzer for the right to answer the questions: 10 points for a correct answer, 10 points off for a wrong answer. In later seasons, after each question, a screen shot from the video clip is shown to the audience that answers the question.
In Unscramble this Picture Puzzle, a 3 by 3 or a 4 by 4 sliding puzzle is shown on the screens, later it became a 5 by 5 sliding puzzle. The puzzle can be a person, a place or an object. When a team buzzes in, the puzzle freezes. The first team to identify the puzzle gets 10 points for their team and the puzzle is instantly revealed to the audience. If they get it wrong, no points are deducted but they get locked out allowing the other teams to answer it. If all three teams fail to identify the puzzle, no points are given out and the answer is revealed.
The team who answers the Unscramble this Picture Puzzle question on the buzzer has the right to choose one of three topics for Fact or Fiction, a new round in 2006 and get five seconds to make that decision. Reeve then reads five statements about the topic for which schools buzz in to answer. These questions are simply true or false questions, however in this round for some reason they are labeled fact or fiction instead, and answering with "true" or "false" is accepted.
Scoring
- Each team begins with 100 points.
- In the individual team question rounds, 10 points are awarded for a correct answer; no points are deducted for a wrong answer.
- If a contestant correctly answers his or her Random Spotlight question, 20 points are awarded instead of 10; once again, no points are deducted for a wrong answer.
- In any buzzer rounds, 10 points are awarded for a correct answer, and 10 points are deducted for a wrong answer. When the show was introduced in 2005, no penalties were given for incorrect answers.
Episodes
The following is an incomplete list of episodes broadcast, participating schools and winning schools from the show. At the end of each season, winning schools from prior episodes are invited back to play in the finals.Season 1 (2005 - 06)
Season 2 (2006)
Season 3 (2006)
Season 4 (2007)
Season 5 (2007)
Season 6 (2008)
Season 7 (2008)
Season 8 (2009)
Season 9 (2009)
Season 10 (Summer Series) (2009)
Season 11 (2010)
Season 12 (2010)
Season 13 (2011)
Season 14 (2011)
Season 15 (2012)
Season 16 (2013)
Season 17 (2013 - 14)
| Episode | First Place | Second Place | Third Place |
| Heat 1 21 - 25 October 2013 | St. Ignatius College 1320 | Christ the King North Rocks 1300 | Homebush West Public 1250 |
| Heat 2 28 October - 1 November 2013 | Beacon Hill Public 1390 | Peakhurst South Public 1310 | Canterbury South Public 1200 |
| Heat 3 4 - 8 November 2013 | Immaculate Heart of Mary Sefton 1330 | Holy Spirit Primary 1190 | Cambridge Gardens Public 1070 |
| Heat 4 11 - 15 November 2013 | Drummoyne Public 1280 | Miranda Public 1260 | Lurnea Public 1160 |
| Heat 5 18 - 22 November 2013 | Christian Brothers Lewisham 1430 | Harbord Public 1350 | Cabramatta West Public 1270 |
| Heat 6 25 - 29 November 2013 | Cherrybrook Public 1390 | Newport Public 1250 | Edensor Park Public 1090 |
| Heat 7 2 - 6 December 2013 | Guildford West Public 1340 | Miranda North Public 1230 | Springwood Public 990 |
| Heat 8 9 - 13 December 2013 | Lidcombe Public 1320 | Ingleburn Public 1180 | Mount Annan Public 1130 |
| Heat 9 16 - 20 December 2013 | Glenhaven Public 1440 | Thomas Hassall College 1280 | St. Patrick’s Guildford 1110 |
| Semi-Final 1 23 - 27 December 2013 | Glenhaven Public* 1190 | St. Ignatius College 1190 | Guildford West Public 1180 |
| Semi-Final 2 30 December 2013 - 3 January 2014 | Drummoyne Public 1410 | Cherrybrook Public 1260 | Christian Brothers Lewisham 1230 |
| Semi-Final 3 6 - 10 January 2014 | Beacon Hill Public 1440 | Lidcombe Public 1270 | Immaculate Heart of Mary Sefton 1260 |
| Grand Final 13 - 17 January 2014 | Glenhaven Public 1230 | Beacon Hill Public 1160 | Drummoyne Public 1110 |