50 free PBS Kids trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Before it was PBS Kids it was PTV, a 1994 block with animated P-Pals; before that, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers simply aired under the PBS logo. The brand with the green thought-bubble logo arrived in 1999 along with Dragon Tales, a 24-hour channel that flopped, and a long run of shows that taught reading, maths and kindness to two generations of American children. This quiz goes wide across that history: the 1993 P-Pals and the 2022 electric-blue rebrand, PBS Kids Go! and Sprout, plus the shows themselves — Arthur's Elwood City and its Ziggy Marley theme, the Hacker in Cyberchase, Buddy the T. rex on Dinosaur Train, Agents Olive and Otto of Odd Squad, WordGirl's chimpanzee sidekick, LeVar Burton's 26 Emmys, the Kratt brothers' lemur, Daniel Tiger's debt to Fred Rogers and Molly of Denali's first. Early questions are for anyone who grew up with the block; later ones ask for premiere years, production studios, creators and the name of the Secret Museum's robot. Fifty questions, every one sourced.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was the PBS children's block called before it became PBS Kids in 1999?
PTV
PTV launched in July 1994 on 11 stations with animated 'P-Pals' shaped like the PBS logo.
Q 02PBS Kids programming typically targets children in which age range?
2 to 8
A PBS Kids Go! sub-block for 6-to-8-year-olds ran from 2004 to 2013.
Q 03What were the boy and girl mascots of the 1999 PBS Kids logo called?
Dash and Dot
The bright green logo used a thought-bubble motif to suggest imagination.
Q 04What colour did the PBS Kids primary logo become in the 2022 rebrand?
Electric blue
Lippincott designed it; the Dash mascot was retired in favour of customisable cartoon characters.
Q 05Which cable giant co-owned PBS Kids Sprout with PBS, Sesame Workshop and HIT?
Comcast
Comcast bought the whole channel through NBCUniversal in 2013; it later became Universal Kids.
Q 06In which year did PBS relaunch its 24-hour PBS Kids channel?
2017
The original 1999 channel shut down in 2005 after DirecTV stopped funding it.
Q 07In February 2023 the daily PBS Kids block was cut from 13 hours to how many?
8
PBS said viewing had shifted to its digital platforms and stations wanted more afternoon shows for adults.
Q 08The 1999 PBS Kids Channel was created partly to compete with which cable network?
Noggin
Noggin was co-owned by Nickelodeon and the Children's Television Workshop, so the channel could not carry Sesame Street.
Q 09Arthur Read, the star of Arthur, is what kind of animal?
An aardvark
Marc Brown's books began in 1976; the WGBH series ran for 25 seasons and 253 episodes.
Q 10Arthur is set in which fictional place?
Elwood City
The show premiered on PTV on 7 October 1996, three years before the PBS Kids name arrived.
Q 11Who performed Arthur's reggae theme song 'Believe in Yourself'?
Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
The song was written by Judy Henderson and Jerry de Villiers Jr.
Q 12How many half-hour episodes of Arthur aired over its 25-season run?
253
It premiered in 1996 and was renewed in 2018 for four more seasons to reach season 25.
Q 13Buster Baxter, who got his own spin-off Postcards from Buster, is what animal?
A rabbit
The spin-off's backdoor pilot aired as an Arthur episode in December 2003.
Sesame Street premiered on US public television in which year?
Q 21How many Emmy Awards did Reading Rainbow win?
26
Ten of them were for Outstanding Children's Series; it collected over 200 broadcast awards in all.
Q 22What kind of animal is Zoboomafoo, the Kratt brothers' 1999 co-star?
A lemur
The Coquerel's sifaka was mainly played by a real lemur named Jovian and voiced by Gord Robertson.
Q 23Wild Kratts airs on PBS Kids in the US and on which Canadian channel?
TVOKids
Running since 2011, it is the longest-lived of the zoologist brothers' shows.
Q 24Which actor voices the villainous Hacker in Cyberchase?
1969
Its first run moved to HBO in 2016 and to Netflix in November 2025, while PBS keeps airing it.
Q 15Who co-created Sesame Street with Lloyd Morrisett?
Joan Ganz Cooney
Their Children's Television Workshop was renamed Sesame Workshop in June 2000.
Q 16Which segment joined Sesame Street after its 30th anniversary, thanks to one Muppet's fame?
Elmo's World
By its 50th anniversary the show had produced over 4,500 episodes.
Q 17In which US city was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood produced?
Pittsburgh
Public broadcaster WQED made it; Fred Rogers had joined the station in 1953.
Q 18Mister Rogers' Neighborhood made its American national debut in which year?
1968
An earlier version, Misterogers, had debuted on Canada's CBC in 1962.
Q 19Donkey Hodie lives in which place, first mentioned on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood?
Someplace Else
Lady Elaine Fairchilde also came from Someplace Else before running the Museum-Go-Round.
Q 20Who hosted Reading Rainbow throughout its original 1983–2006 run?
LeVar Burton
He was best known for Roots when it started; the show won 26 Emmys and a Peabody.
Christopher Lloyd
Gilbert Gottfried voiced Digit the cybird for the first thirteen seasons.
Q 25Cyberchase was developed for children of which ages?
8 to 11
It premiered in January 2002 and uses basic maths to foil Hacker's schemes.
Q 26Who voiced Clifford in every episode of the 2000 Clifford the Big Red Dog series?
John Ritter
He died ten days after the spin-off Clifford's Puppy Days debuted in 2003.
Q 27Who voices Curious George in the PBS Kids series, reprising his film role?
Frank Welker
Jeff Bennett replaced Will Ferrell as The Man with the Yellow Hat.
Q 28In Dragon Tales, which two dragons share a body as conjoined twins?
Zak and Wheezie
Neat-freak Zak and rambunctious Wheezie were originally conceived as 'Snarf and Bugger'.
Q 29WordGirl's secret identity is a fifth-grader with what name?
Becky Botsford
She was born on the planet Lexicon and crash-landed in Fair City as a baby.
Q 30What species is WordGirl's sidekick Captain Huggy Face?
A chimpanzee
He was a Lexicon Air Force pilot whose ship crashed when baby WordGirl startled him.