The Americans Trivia
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112 free The Americans trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This The Americans trivia quiz covers all six seasons of Joe Weisberg's Cold War drama, from the pilot's kidnapping of a KGB defector in 1981 to the train to Montreal in "START". The easy questions are ones any viewer can handle: who plays Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, which network aired it, what cover business the couple ran, and the name of the FBI agent who moved in next door. The harder end is for people who noticed the wigs. It asks about Directorate S and the Rezidentura, Nina and Stan, Martha and "Clark", Gregory, Claudia and Gabriel, the Weinberger clock, the mail robot, Betty, glanders and Lassa fever, William, Kimmy and her father, Oleg's arrest, the Dead Hand plot, Elizabeth's Smolensk childhood, Philip's secret son, Henry's boarding school, the Epcot trip, the McDonald's stop and the platform at Rouses Point. There are also questions on the making of the show: Weisberg's CIA past, the 2010 Illegals Program that inspired it, Hurricane Sandy, filming in Brooklyn and Moscow, the two Peabody Awards, Matthew Rhys's Emmy, Margo Martindale's two, and the cast's other roles from Felicity to The Waltons. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its season pages, individual episodes and the cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Cold War and FBI quizzes next.
30 of 112 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which US cable network did The Americans air?
FX
The Americans aired on FX for six seasons, from January 2013 to May 2018.
Q 02Who plays Elizabeth Jennings?
Keri Russell
Russell had won a Golden Globe for a WB drama more than a decade earlier.
Q 03Who plays Philip Jennings?
Matthew Rhys
Matthew Rhys plays Philip; he went on to star as Perry Mason in HBO's 2020 series.
Q 04Which Soviet agency do the Jenningses secretly work for?
The KGB
They are KGB officers of Directorate S, the branch that ran deep-cover illegals living under false identities abroad.
Q 05In which Virginia suburb do the Jenningses live?
Falls Church
The Jenningses live in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb just outside Washington, D.C., where the couple operate.
Q 06What cover business do Philip and Elizabeth run?
A travel agency
Their cover is a travel agency, Dupont Circle Travel; by the final season Philip has quit spying to run it full time as it loses money.
Q 07Who is the FBI counterintelligence agent who moves in next door?
Stan Beeman
FBI counterintelligence agent Stan Beeman moves in across the street and becomes Philip's best friend without suspecting him for years.
Q 08Who plays Stan?
Noah Emmerich
Noah Emmerich almost turned the part down because he was tired of playing men with badges.
Q 09What was the creator's job before television?
He was in the CIA
Creator Joe Weisberg was a CIA officer from 1990 to 1994 before writing for television, and drew on that experience for the show's spycraft.
Q 10What are the names of the Jennings children?
Paige and Henry
The children are Paige and Henry, both born in America and raised unaware of their parents' work until Paige learns the truth as a teenager.
Q 11Whose presidency has just begun when the series opens?
Ronald Reagan's
The pilot is set in February 1981, weeks after Ronald Reagan's inauguration on January 20, 1981.
Q 12Which arms-control agreement is about to be signed when the series concludes?
The INF Treaty
The finale is set during the December 1987 Washington Summit, where Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
Q 13How many episodes were made in total?
75
The Americans made 75 episodes: five 13-episode seasons plus a 10-episode sixth season, from 2013 to 2018.
Q 21Which child do the Jenningses decide to leave behind in America?
Henry
They leave Henry behind to finish school in America; in the parking garage Philip asks Stan to look after him.
Q 22Whom does Philip warn Stan about before leaving?
Renee
Philip tells Stan that his wife Renee 'might be one of us'; whether she is a KGB plant is left unanswered.
Q 23What passports do the Jenningses use to escape?
Canadian
They travel on Canadian passports; before boarding they bury the evidence of their American lives, including a fake passport Henry will never use.
Who is arrested by the FBI in the final episodes after picking up a dead drop?
Q 14Which Fleetwood Mac song plays over the pilot's opening abduction and car chase?
Tusk
Fleetwood Mac's 1979 single "Tusk" scores the pilot's opening abduction and car chase, one of the show's best-known music cues.
Q 15What is the title of the series finale?
START
The series finale is titled "START", after the strategic arms talks; it aired on FX on May 30, 2018.
Q 16Which U2 song plays as the Jenningses' train heads for the Canadian border in the finale?
With or Without You
U2's "With or Without You", a 1987 single from The Joshua Tree, scores the finale's train ride toward the Canadian border.
Q 17Where does Stan confront the Jenningses in the finale?
In a parking garage
Stan confronts Philip, Elizabeth and Paige in a parking garage; he draws his gun, hears them out, and lets them drive away.
Q 18What last American meal do Philip, Elizabeth and Paige eat in the finale?
McDonald's
Their last American meal is at a McDonald's on the drive north; on the train they then sit apart as strangers.
Q 19Where is the family's train heading when they cross the border?
Montreal
The train is bound for Montreal; they clear border security at Rouses Point, New York, before crossing into Quebec.
Q 20What shocks Philip and Elizabeth as the train leaves the United States?
Paige is standing alone on the platform
They see Paige standing alone on the platform, having slipped off the train; she returns to Claudia's abandoned safe house and pours a vodka.
Oleg Burov
Oleg Burov is arrested by the FBI after retrieving a dead drop; he came to the US without diplomatic cover, so he faces prison rather than expulsion.
Q 25Which Emmy did Rhys win for the finale?
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Weisberg and Fields won the writing Emmy for the same episode.
Q 26Who directed the pilot?
Gavin O'Connor
Gavin O'Connor, who had directed Emmerich in Pride and Glory (2008), directed the pilot and talked his friend into taking the FBI role.
Q 27Whom do the Jenningses kidnap in the pilot?
A KGB defector named Timoshev
He had raped Elizabeth during her training; Philip kills him in their garage.
Q 28What does Stan borrow from Philip in the pilot that lets him see the Jenningses' car?
Jumper cables
Stan asks to borrow jumper cables, and in the garage sees the Jenningses' Oldsmobile, the same model as the kidnappers' car; later he sneaks in to search its trunk.
Q 29How many US viewers watched the pilot?
3.22 million
The pilot drew 3.22 million US viewers on January 30, 2013; no later episode came close, and the finale drew 922,000.
Q 30What is Elizabeth's Russian birth name?
Nadezhda
Elizabeth was born Nadezhda, a Russian name meaning 'hope'; Elizabeth Jennings is the cover identity she took on in America.