2017 TV
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50 free 2017 Tv trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
2017 was the year television stopped fitting on a schedule. Streaming services poured out new dramas faster than anyone could watch them, a fantasy epic kept viewers waiting for dragons, and a group of kids on bikes in Indiana went back to the Upside Down. This quiz covers the shows and moments of that year: Stranger Things and Game of Thrones, Riverdale and Twin Peaks, the breakout newcomers, the comebacks, the long-runners that bowed out, and the awards nights and live broadcasts that had everyone talking the next morning. Expect questions on casts, characters, plot twists, creators and behind-the-scenes stories. It is written for anyone who spent 2017 on the sofa, and for quiz hosts who need a ready-made TV round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the questions for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which fast-food chain brought back Szechuan sauce in 2017 after a Rick and Morty episode made fans demand it?
McDonald's
McDonald's had first offered the sauce in 1998 to promote Disney's Mulan. More than 40,000 fans signed a petition, and one old packet sold for $14,700 on eBay.
Q 02Which pop star played a singing Lannister soldier in the opening episode of Game of Thrones' seventh season?
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran was booked as a surprise for Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark and is a fan. Producers had been trying to get him on the show for several years.
Q 03Which star of The Goonies joined Stranger Things in 2017 as Bob Newby, the kindly boyfriend of Joyce Byers?
Sean Astin
Sean Astin plays a former classmate of Joyce who runs the Hawkins RadioShack. He is also Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings films.
Q 04Which Broadchurch actress was revealed in July 2017 as the first woman to play the lead in Doctor Who?
Jodie Whittaker
Jodie Whittaker was unveiled in a clip shown after the Wimbledon men's final. She said she had not grown up watching Doctor Who.
Q 05Which Bridesmaids star turned up on Saturday Night Live in 2017 playing White House press secretary Sean Spicer?
Melissa McCarthy
Melissa McCarthy's Saturday Night Live work that year won her the Emmy for guest actress in a comedy. She played Spicer four times in all.
Q 06Which singer's Super Bowl halftime show in 2017 opened with 300 drones forming the American flag behind her?
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga's drone display was filmed earlier in the week, because flying the formation over a live crowd was ruled unsafe. The rooftop opening at Houston's NRG Stadium was shown as a recording.
Q 07Which pop star was an executive producer of 13 Reasons Why, the Netflix teen drama built around cassette tapes?
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez was first cast to star as Hannah Baker when the novel was going to be a film. By the time Netflix made the series she had moved behind the camera.
Q 08Which drama based on a Margaret Atwood novel became the first streaming series to win the Emmy for best drama?
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale was also the first show made by Hulu to win a major award. Elisabeth Moss took the lead actress Emmy on the same night.
Q 09Which Big Bang Theory actor narrates Young Sheldon, the prequel that became a hit for CBS in 2017?
Jim Parsons
Jim Parsons voices the adult Sheldon looking back on his childhood. The prequel grew out of an idea he took to the producers himself.
Q 10Which NBC sitcom about a gay lawyer and his designer best friend returned in 2017 after eleven years away?
Will & Grace
Will & Grace had signed off in 2006 after eight seasons. NBC ordered ten new episodes for the comeback and later expanded the season to 16.
Q 11Which comedian hosted the 2017 Emmy Awards, opening with a song-and-dance number about the state of the world?
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert's monologue set an anti-Trump tone for the night. Former press secretary Sean Spicer then appeared in person to parody himself.
Q 12Which of Daenerys's dragons does the Night King kill with an ice javelin and reanimate in Game of Thrones?
Viserion
Viserion falls during a rescue mission beyond the Wall. In the season finale the reanimated dragon destroys Eastwatch and breaches the Wall itself.
Q 13Which scheming lord is sentenced to death by Sansa Stark and killed by Arya in Game of Thrones' 2017 finale?
Littlefinger
Q 21Which HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman won the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series?
Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies was first planned as a film, with its two stars producing. It is based on Liane Moriarty's novel and set in Monterey, California.
Q 22Which film director steered Mindhunter, Netflix's 2017 drama about FBI agents interviewing serial killers?
David Fincher
David Fincher directed more episodes than anyone else and ran the show in all but name. Charlize Theron was among his fellow executive producers.
Q 23Which Arrested Development star plays Marty Byrde, an adviser laundering cartel money, in Netflix's Ozark?
Jason Bateman
Littlefinger realised too late that the trial was a trap and begged Sansa for mercy. It was actor Aidan Gillen's final appearance in the series.
Q 14Which actress joined Stranger Things in 2017 as Max Mayfield, having played the title role in Annie on Broadway?
Sadie Sink
Sadie Sink auditioned for the part in September 2016. She had also played the young Elizabeth II on Broadway in The Audience.
Q 15Which British actor plays Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident with autism, in ABC's The Good Doctor?
Freddie Highmore
Freddie Highmore had just finished playing Norman Bates in Bates Motel. Actor Daniel Dae Kim had spotted the original overseas version and bought the remake rights.
Q 16Riverdale, the dark teen mystery launched by The CW in 2017, is based on characters from which publisher?
Archie Comics
Archie Comics' chief creative officer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, adapted the series himself. Its first season turns on the murder of Cheryl Blossom's brother.
Q 17Which restaurateur replaced Mary Berry as a judge when The Great British Bake Off moved to Channel 4 in 2017?
Prue Leith
Prue Leith joined Paul Hollywood, the one judge who made the move from the BBC. Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig took over as presenters.
Q 18Which film-maker directed every episode of Twin Peaks when the cult mystery returned on Showtime in 2017?
David Lynch
David Lynch had said in 2001 that Twin Peaks was as dead as a doornail. He and co-creator Mark Frost wrote the whole comeback together.
Q 19Which singer was the first judge announced for the American Idol revival when ABC confirmed her in May 2017?
Katy Perry
Katy Perry was joined on the panel by Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. Ryan Seacrest stayed on as host, a job he had held for 15 years.
Q 20Which Netflix drama dropped its star Kevin Spacey in 2017 and finished with Robin Wright in the lead?
House of Cards
House of Cards returned for a shortened final season of eight episodes. Netflix put the cost of dropping Spacey and his other projects at 39 million dollars.
Jason Bateman also directed episodes of the drama and won an Emmy for it in 2019. The story moves a Chicago family to Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks.
Q 24Dark, a 2017 time-travel mystery set in the town of Winden, was Netflix's first original in which language?
German
German was new ground for the service when Dark arrived on 1 December 2017. The story follows four families across several generations.
Q 25The robbers in Money Heist, first shown on Spanish television in 2017, wear masks of which artist?
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí was chosen for his instantly recognisable face. A Don Quixote mask was considered as an alternative and discarded.
Q 26Which actor played Prince Philip opposite Claire Foy in The Crown, whose second season arrived in December 2017?
Matt Smith
Matt Smith's casting was announced in June 2015 along with John Lithgow as Winston Churchill. Foy was confirmed as the Queen at the same time.
Q 27Which actress plays Midge, a 1950s New York housewife turned stand-up comic, in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?
Rachel Brosnahan
Rachel Brosnahan won an Emmy and two Golden Globes in a row for the role. The Amazon series was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino.
Q 28Which sport does struggling actress Ruth Wilder take up in GLOW, the 2017 Netflix comedy set in 1980s Los Angeles?
Wrestling
Wrestling gives the show its name: GLOW was the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, a real women's circuit syndicated on American television in the 1980s.
Q 29Which writer created The Orville, Fox's 2017 space adventure, and cast himself as Captain Ed Mercer?
Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane named both the series and its starship after the aviation pioneer Orville Wright. The story begins in the year 2418.
Q 30Which Hollywood legend did Susan Sarandon play opposite Jessica Lange's Joan Crawford in the 2017 series Feud?
Bette Davis
Bette Davis and Crawford battled through the making of their 1962 thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the backstage war the series dramatises.