PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • JUNE 17 - 23, 2021
NBC revives a tried and true quiz show
from the ‘60s with ‘College Bowl’
BY GEORGE DICKIE
The kids are clearly the stars of “College
Bowl” but the Manning brothers Peyton
and Cooper certainly make a solid
supporting cast.
Premiering Tuesday, June 22, on NBC,
this revival of the classic quiz show that
aired on CBS and NBC from 1959 to 1970
brings in 12 schools that are historical or
regional rivals to compete head-to-head in
a bracketed tournament over four rounds.
Each team of three answers questions on a
variety of subjects ranging from medicine
and history to philosophy and science to
score the most points. The top two teams
that make it to the final will compete for $1
million in scholarship money.
Along the way, they’ll receive messages of
encouragement from their school’s famous
alumni. Two-time Super Bowl champ
Peyton Manning is the host and his older
brother Cooper is the sideline reporter.
Both are also executive producers, along
with younger brother Eli (also a two-time
Super Bowl winner) and showrunner David
Friedman, who thinks the Mannings’ playful
chemistry will be a big draw for viewers.
“It was really important to them to enjoy
the experience but also support the kids,”
Friedman explains. “And it very much feels
like a show that if you were to grow up
in the Manning family or were a friend of
them and you walked into their house on a
Saturday night and they were playing like
a game of Q&A, this is what it feels like.
And I think that’s really the fun. It’s very
infectious to watch them. They obviously
Peyton Manning hosts
“College Bowl,” premiering
Tuesday on NBC.
have a great relationship; they get a kick out
of each other.”
But “College Bowl” is most definitely
about the students. Though there is
only one champion, no one will walk
away empty-handed as kids from all 12
participating schools receive some amount
of tuition money. That was especially
important to Peyton Manning, who has
personally endowed 45 scholarships to
support students at his alma mater of the
University of Tennessee, as well as the show’s
sponsor, Capital One.
And the rivalries are familiar ones.
Tuesday’s opener pits SEC adversaries
Auburn against Alabama and Michigan
versus Minnesota, both of the Big Ten.
Future weeks’ match-ups are Morehouse
and Columbia, USC and UCLA, Virginia
and Xavier, and Peyton’s Tennessee versus
Cooper’s alma mater of Mississippi. As
teams advance in the tournament, they’re
reseeded according to points totals and
pitted against new opponents until two
teams are left standing in the final.
And it’s all based on how many questions
the players can answer correctly.
“We really wanted to have a full range
of questions, so that it was viewer-friendly
and you could play along at home from the
couch and also it challenges the kids ...,”
Friedman says. “You have to be a student
and you have to have a wealth of knowledge
and information to do well – and you had
to work together as a team.”
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
Schedules are based on standard-
definition (SD) channels. High-
definition (HD) channels may vary
by three hours when a West Coast
programming feed is not available to
your TV provider. Please refer to your
provider’s interactive TV guide for
detailed HD channel schedules.
For a list of cable and over-the-air
channels by zip code, as well
up-to-the-minute TV programming,
please visit www.bendbulletin.
com/tv. For questions or feedback
please call The Bulletin Circulation
Department at 541-385-5800.