80 free NBC trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
73 free NBC trivia questions with answers. NBC is the oldest of America's big networks, and almost a century of history hides behind the peacock. This quiz covers the company itself: the RCA radio days, why the Red and Blue networks were named after pushpins, how the Blue Network became ABC, the G-E-C chimes that became the first audio trademark, and the peacock's eleven feathers becoming six. Then it gets to the shows. Meet the Press, Today and The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and Studio 8H, the Must See TV Thursdays of Cheers, Seinfeld and Friends, then The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Law & Order and This Is Us. Sports fans get the Heidi Game, the Olympics, Sunday Night Football and Roundball Rock. Questions range from easy to genuinely obscure, and every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01NBC was founded in 1926 as a division of which company?
Radio Corporation of America
RCA kept a 50 percent stake, and regular broadcasts began on 15 November 1926.
Q 02Which cable giant has owned NBC through NBCUniversal since buying a controlling stake in 2011?
Comcast
Comcast bought out General Electric's remaining share in 2013, and 30 Rockefeller Plaza was renamed the Comcast Building.
Q 03NBC's peacock logo was introduced in 1956 to promote what?
Color broadcasting
Parent company RCA sold color sets, so NBC had every reason to shout about its color schedule.
Q 04How many feathers did the original 1956 NBC peacock have?
Eleven
The 1986 redesign trimmed it to six feathers, one for each of the network's divisions.
Q 05In NBC's 1986 six-feather peacock, each colour stood for a division. Which one was yellow?
News
Sports is orange, Entertainment red, Stations purple, Network blue and Productions green.
Q 06NBC's 1976 trapezoid 'N' logo was nearly identical to which broadcaster's, which sued?
Nebraska ETV Network
NBC settled by handing the Nebraska public network more than $800,000 of broadcasting equipment plus $55,000 to design a new logo.
Q 07The famous three-note NBC chimes sound which notes?
G, E, C
A popular legend says the letters stand for the initials of an early NBC shareholder, but the notes were in use long before that story appeared.
Q 08In 1950 the NBC chimes became the first of what kind of trademark granted by the USPTO?
A purely audio service mark
Chimes were originally a technical cue telling engineers when to switch stations between the Red and Blue network feeds.
Q 09A four-note variant known as 'the fourth chime' was reserved by NBC for what?
Events of extreme urgency
It rang out after the Pearl Harbor attack and on D-Day.
Q 10According to network lore, how did NBC's early Red and Blue radio networks get their colour names?
From coloured pushpins on affiliate maps
The Red Network carried sponsored entertainment; the Blue Network mostly aired unsponsored news and cultural shows.
Q 11NBC's Blue Network was sold off in 1943 and became which rival network?
ABC
The FCC had ordered RCA to divest one of its two networks; Blue formally became the American Broadcasting Company on 15 June 1945.
Q 12Edward J. Noble, who bought NBC Blue for $8 million in 1943, had made his fortune selling which product?
Life Savers candy
Noble then bought the rights to the 'American Broadcasting Company' name for his new network.
Q 13On 30 April 1939, NBC's World's Fair camera made who the first US president to appear on television?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
About 1,000 viewers within 40 miles of the Empire State Building transmitter saw it; RCA put television sets on sale the very next day.
Q 21Who shared Tonight hosting duties with its first host during the 1956–57 season?
Ernie Kovacs
Allen had been given a Sunday primetime show and needed help; Kovacs took two nights a week.
Q 22In 1972 The Tonight Show left New York for a studio in which California city?
Burbank
On air it was announced as coming from 'beautiful downtown Burbank', though NBC also called it Hollywood.
Q 23Whom did NBC name as Johnny Carson's successor in 1992, a choice blamed for losing Letterman?
Jay Leno
Letterman launched the Late Show on CBS the following year, opposite his old network.
Q 14Which NBC program, first aired in 1947, is the longest-running program on American television?
Meet the Press
It began as a radio show; 13 moderators have hosted it since Martha Rountree opened the first episode.
Q 15Who co-created NBC's Sunday-morning political interview show in 1947 and hosted it first?
Martha Rountree
Kristen Welker became the second woman to moderate the show when she took over in September 2023.
Q 16Who is Meet the Press's longest-serving moderator, on the job from 1991 until his death in 2008?
Tim Russert
Russert had been NBC's Washington bureau chief; his whiteboard 'Florida, Florida, Florida' became an election-night icon in 2000.
Q 17Which NBC executive dreamed up Today in 1952 and also created The Tonight Show?
Sylvester 'Pat' Weaver
Weaver's other creations included the radio show Monitor; his daughter is the actress Sigourney Weaver.
Q 18From 1953 to 1957 the Today show featured a regular named J. Fred Muggs. What was he?
A chimpanzee
His antics drew viewers but exasperated the staff, especially host Dave Garroway.
Q 19Today's street-side studio at Rockefeller Center, opened in 1994, is Studio what?
1A
The window studio echoed the show's 1950s origins, when passers-by could watch Garroway through the glass.
Q 20Who was the first host of The Tonight Show when it debuted in 1954?
Steve Allen
Only seven comedians have hosted the show in more than 70 years.
Q 24Which host has fronted NBC's Late Night the longest, for almost 16 years?
Conan O'Brien
O'Brien was a little-known Simpsons writer when he got the job in 1993.
Q 25Late Night with David Letterman debuted in 1982 in the 12:35 a.m. slot vacated by what?
The Tomorrow Show
Tom Snyder's interview show was axed and 34-year-old Letterman got the 12:35 a.m. hour.
Q 26Who hosted the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in October 1975?
George Carlin
Lorne Michaels created the show, and Dick Ebersol helped develop it for NBC.
Q 27SNL's Studio 8H was built in 1933 as the world's largest radio studio for which conductor?
Arturo Toscanini
The NBC Symphony Orchestra moved in in 1937; the room was converted for television in 1950.
Q 28What nickname was given to the original Saturday Night Live cast?
The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players
Writer Herb Sargent coined the term for the cast that included Belushi, Aykroyd, Radner and Chase.
Q 29From 1994 NBC branded its strongest night of comedies as 'Must See TV'. Which night was it?
Thursday
Friends, Seinfeld and ER anchored the block, and the tag was later stretched to Tuesdays too.
Q 30Which Cheers spin-off later won a then-record 37 Emmys?
Frasier
Frasier took Outstanding Comedy Series five years running; The Tortellis lasted a single season.