There's another quiz program featuring local students that also tapes at Vegas PBS.

We went behind the scenes of Varsity Quiz.

(Mark Argento) I'm from Advanced Technologies Academy, also known as A-Tech, and I'm participating in the Silver League Semifinals for the 2024-2025 Varsity Quiz season.

-How do you feel?

-I'm excited.

I'm a little nervous.

(Kevin Lee) Oh, I'm from Palo Verde, and today I will be competing on Varsity Quiz with my teammates.

(Sheila Parise) Varsity Quiz is actually in its 56th year.

So it's one of the more seasoned, I guess activities, at CCSD.

It's run in like three rounds, kind of like Jeopardy.

There's-- but we do have, like, because we have four students compete on a team on television, we have a bonus round, which is the second round, so the teams can confer.

That's a little bit different than Jeopardy.

(Nathan Tannenbaum) Coming up next, it's Palo Verde... [cheers and applause] ...taking on A-Tech!

[cheers and applause] This is Varsity Quiz!

[crashing sound] ♪♪♪ -I got involved because I really like learning new stuff, and I also like sports.

And I feel like Varsity Quiz really combines those two in a fun and interesting manner.

It also helps our critical thinking skills, because we need to think on the moment and really just come up with answers that nobody really thinks that we can.

- Varsity Quiz is about inclusivity of a huge amount of information.

And so what ends up happening is you have people who are relatively good at certain topics, and so I think that the specialization of each of the team members that we have is going to end up carrying the day.

[buzzer] -That's A-Tech, Mark: Ovid -Well, for the students, they just have a lot of fun.

It is a lot of fun, and you get to do-- we get to do, like, competitions every week.

They get to look forward to it, they get to practice, you know, and they look really smart on TV when they-- and they are.

They're super smart.

And that's what I think is good for the community is a lot of times we, you know, cheer on athletes and those, you know, with physical abilities.

But these guys are academically gifted, and these are the kids going to MIT and, Harvard and just doing some amazing things.

And I think, you know, our-- to showcase the things that are happening in our public schools when there's a lot of bad news going around about public schools, I think this is absolutely wonderful, the community to see these kids.

And people watch it.

[crashing sound] -Final score: Palo Verde 60, A-Tech 140.

Thank you to both teams, an incredible match.

[applause] -Scholarship awards are given to the top two ranking teams and the Howard Naylor Outstanding Player.

So congratulations to all these talented students.

And you can catch Varsity Quiz on Vegas PBS Mondays at 7:30 or anytime at vegaspbs.org or on the PBS app.