50 Fun Facts About Scandal

Who plays Olivia Pope in Scandal?

Kerry Washington led the show from the first episode to the last, and in the final season she stepped behind the camera to direct an episode herself.

Who created Scandal?

Shonda Rhimes based the series on the casework of Judy Smith, a real political crisis manager she met in 2009, who joined the show as a co-executive producer.

The actor who plays President Fitz Grant in Scandal was the voice of which Disney animated hero?

Tarzan: the future President Grant voiced the grown-up ape man in Disney's 1999 film, nine years after making his name as the villain of Ghost.

Olivia Pope is partly based on Judy Smith, who served as deputy press secretary to which president?

George H. W. Bush appointed her in 1991. After the White House she founded the crisis firm Smith & Company, and its casework became the model for the show.

Judy Smith, the real-life model for Olivia Pope, counselled which figure from the Clinton impeachment scandal?

Monica Lewinsky was her client during the scandal; Smith's firm has also advised the actor Wesley Snipes and Sony Pictures after its 2014 hack.

In Scandal's final season, Olivia Pope & Associates is renamed after which member of the team?

Quinn Perkins inherits the firm when Olivia leaves to run the White House as chief of staff, and it reopens as Quinn Perkins & Associates, or QPA.

In Scandal's first episode, a new recruit is told that Olivia Pope's team are what?

'Gladiators in suits' is how the job is sold to the firm's newest lawyer on her first day, and the phrase stuck: the network's own synopsis of the series calls the team that.

In Scandal, what White House job did Olivia Pope hold before founding her crisis firm?

Director of Communications was her reward for helping to win Fitz the presidency; she then walked away from the White House to open her own crisis firm.

Who plays President Fitzgerald 'Fitz' Grant III?

Tony Goldwyn also worked behind the camera, directing several episodes across the run, the last of them in the final season.

Before the presidency, Fitz was governor of which state?

California made Fitz its governor before his run for the White House; he had gone into politics there after flying fighter jets for the Navy.

Which actor plays White House chief of staff Cyrus Beene?

Jeff Perry was still a student when he, Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney started Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, putting on plays in a school basement.

Who plays Mellie, the First Lady, in Scandal?

Bellamy Young came to acting by way of singing, her first love, and during the show's run she released an album of her own, Far Away So Close.

In Scandal, how does Mellie try to stop Fitz from divorcing her?

She has her labour induced early so that the new baby will keep him at her side; Fitz sees through it and goes on planning the divorce.

In Scandal, who is revealed at the end of season two to be Olivia's father?

Rowan had been seen only as a nameless, menacing spymaster until the season's closing seconds, when Olivia faces him and says a single word: 'Dad?'

In Scandal, what is the title held by the head of B613?

Command is what everyone in B613 calls its chief, whoever holds the post, and by the final season the title has passed to Olivia herself.

In Scandal, what is Huck's real name?

Diego Muñoz is the name he had as a husband and father before B613 took that life from him; a season four episode, 'The Testimony of Diego Muñoz', turns on it.

Which actress plays Quinn Perkins in Scandal?

Katie Lowes plays the firm's wide-eyed new lawyer, who turns out to be a woman framed for murder and living under an identity that Olivia's team gave her.

In Scandal, which member of Olivia Pope's firm goes on to become White House Press Secretary and then Chief of Staff?

Abby Whelan first stands in for Olivia at the White House, is hired as its press secretary, and takes the chief of staff's office when Cyrus is fired.

Which Scandal character, played by Columbus Short, is murdered by B613 at the end of season three?

Harrison Wright had just worked out who was behind the death of the president's son. He was written out after Columbus Short left the show for personal reasons.

Which actor plays David Rosen, the US Attorney turned Attorney General, in Scandal?

Joshua Malina swapped sides between two White House dramas: he worked for the president as Will Bailey on The West Wing, then spent this show investigating one.

Who plays Jake Ballard, the B613 operative ordered to get close to Olivia, in Scandal?

Scott Foley arrived as a guest in season two, was promoted to the main cast a year later, and by the final season was directing episodes as well.

In Scandal, which vice president briefly takes over as president after Fitz is shot?

Sally Langston becomes acting president while Fitz lies in hospital, and Olivia is pulled back into the White House to help her run it.

In Scandal, what was the codename of the mission in which Fitz shot down a civilian airliner?

Operation Remington is the secret at the heart of season three: Fitz, then a Navy pilot, was ordered to shoot the plane down, and Olivia's mother was listed among the dead.

Which Friends alum guest-starred in Scandal as Congresswoman Josie Marcus, a Democratic presidential hopeful?

Lisa Kudrow played her across a run of season three episodes, in which Olivia's team first investigates the candidate and then coaches her for the campaign.

In Scandal, who kills Cyrus's husband James to protect a cover-up?

Jake has been asked to keep a secret buried, so he shoots James, makes it look like a carjacking and stays with the dying man to the end.

In Scandal, how was Fitz and Mellie's son Jerry murdered?

Deliberate exposure to bacterial meningitis made it pass for sudden illness: the boy collapses while his father gives a campaign speech, and the wave of sympathy wins Fitz the election.

Which Arrested Development star plays RNC chairwoman Elizabeth North in Scandal?

Portia de Rossi began as a recurring guest in season four and stayed as a regular, her party chairwoman scheming her way into the West Wing as chief of staff.

In Scandal, which former vice president does Olivia brutally murder in season five?

Andrew Nichols, who once had her kidnapped, is threatening to leak what he knows and refuses to be bought off; Olivia snaps and beats him to death with a chair.

Scandal's 100th episode imagines Olivia's life if she had refused to do what?

Rig Fitz's election: in the episode's what-if she says no, he loses the race, leaves his wife and turns up to ask Olivia to marry him.

Which television lawyer turns to Olivia Pope for help in Scandal's 2018 crossover episode?

Annalise Keating, of How to Get Away with Murder, needs Olivia's help to rush her class action to the Supreme Court; the story began on Scandal and carried on into her own show.

In 2014, what did ABC name the Thursday-night drama block that included Scandal?

TGIT stands for 'Thank God It's Thursday', a twist on TGIF, the network's long-running Friday comedy brand; from autumn 2014 one producer's dramas filled the whole evening.

Scandal premiered in 2012 in the timeslot right after which other series?

Grey's Anatomy was the lead-in, from the same creator. The slot had belonged to its spin-off Private Practice, which was sent to Tuesdays to finish its season.

Why was Scandal's third season cut from 22 episodes to 18?

Its star's pregnancy was the reason the network gave when it trimmed the order in December 2013; the finale went out four weeks early, in mid-April.

In Scandal, Fitz builds a house for the life he hopes to share with Olivia in which state?

Vermont: he flies her there to see the house in a season three episode titled 'Vermont Is for Lovers, Too', and it is where he retreats once his presidency is over.

Which prestigious broadcasting honour did Scandal win for its 2013 season?

A Peabody Award went to the show for breaking ground in its casting and writing; the judges' citation called its heroine 'no ordinary crisis manager'.

Scandal made its star the first Black woman to lead a US network drama since Teresa Graves in which 1974 series?

Get Christie Love! cast Graves as an undercover detective and lasted a single season; almost forty years passed before another network drama was built around a Black actress.

According to Time in 2013, which household item of Olivia Pope's sold out at Crate & Barrel after appearing in Scandal?

Her wine glasses sold out, and so did the white Burberry trench coat she wears; the magazine called the character a real-world lifestyle tastemaker.

Scandal's lead actress was born in which New York City borough?

The Bronx is where she grew up; as a teenager she was already performing with a youth theatre group while she went to school at Spence in Manhattan.

Scandal's lead actress played which real person in HBO's 2016 film Confirmation?

Anita Hill is the law professor who testified at Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings; the film restages her days before the Senate committee.

Which Britney Spears film did the show's creator write in 2001?

She followed it with The Princess Diaries 2 before Grey's Anatomy changed everything.

Which Netflix period drama does Scandal's creator executive-produce?

Bridgerton was the first scripted series to come out of the deal that took her production company from ABC to Netflix; she is one of its executive producers.

In Scandal, the feared head of B613 hides behind a day job at which institution in the capital?

The Smithsonian is his cover: to the outside world the spymaster is a museum man who dotes on his dinosaur bones.

Which organisation named Scandal one of its Television Programs of the Year for 2013?

The American Film Institute picks ten television programmes each year; its citation called the show 'a grand opera of passionate political delights'.

Season six of Scandal revolves around the murder of which president-elect?

Frankie Vargas is shot during his victory speech on election night, and the season becomes a hunt for whoever ordered it, with his own running mate the first suspect.

Henry Ian Cusick, Stephen Finch in Scandal's first season, was best known for which earlier series?

Lost made him famous as Desmond Hume. He left Scandal after one season by what was described as a mutual decision with the showrunner, returning once as a guest in season four.

Which cable channel struck an early syndication deal for Scandal in July 2013?

BET ran two marathons of the first two seasons that August and then a two-hour block each Wednesday, so that new viewers could catch up before season three began.

Which actress was cast in 2013 to play Olivia's mother, Maya Lewis, in Scandal?

Khandi Alexander, then a star of Treme, first appears in flashbacks as a mother Olivia believes died in a plane crash; she turns out to be very much alive.

Scandal's final scene shows two girls gazing at a painting of Olivia Pope hanging where?

The National Portrait Gallery is where the series ends, with two girls looking up at Olivia's portrait and viewers left to decide what she did to earn the place.

In Scandal, Mellie wins a US Senate seat in which state while she is still First Lady?

Virginia elects her while Fitz is still in office, and he holds the Bible as she is sworn in, not long before the two of them divorce.

Which actor plays Charlie, the B613 assassin who becomes a regular in Scandal's final season?

George Newbern's killer for hire ends up engaged to one of Olivia's own team, and the firm gathers for their wedding in the final season.