Lexington High School’s (LHS) Quiz Show team successfully defended its High School Quiz Show title and cemented its place as a powerhouse. The championship episode, in which Lexington defeated Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N), aired on GBH on May 15. Since the show’s launch sixteen years ago, Lexington has claimed victory in a quarter of all seasons.
This year’s team included seniors Atreya Mallanna and Owen Jiang, as well as sophomores Shishir Bharadwaj and Alvan Hossain. Juniors Adam Tzafriri and Eric Zhang served as alternates. The team is led by LHS English teacher Joshua Olivier-Mason and Principal Andrew Baker.
Much of the team’s preparation for High School Quiz Show happens individually, with each member focusing on their area of expertise. “[The team] comes in with that knowledge and it’s more about filling in some of the gaps,” Olivier-Mason said. “Meetings are where we talk about certain things to keep an eye on, such as current events.”
While seniors Mallanna and Jiang returned from last year’s championship team, sophomores Bharadwaj and Hossain were new to the competition. Despite this, both Bharadwaj and Hossain came in with relevant experience, having competed extensively in Quiz Bowl. “They’ve competed in a lot of those tournaments, so they were already comfortable with the Quiz Show format,” Olivier-Mason said.
Olivier-Mason added that the leadership and experience of the returning seniors helped set the tone. “Atreya and Owen had been on so many different episodes, so it made the process pretty seamless,” he said.
Despite entering as defending champions, the team kept their expectations in check. “We never took our chances for granted, and we even played like the underdog at certain points,” Jiang said. “We didn’t really think about the pressure—we just focused on getting the next question right.”
Although High School Quiz Show remains a beloved program for both competitors and viewers, Olivier-Mason expressed concern about the show’s future in light of recent political developments. He pointed to the Trump administration’s scrutiny of public broadcasting as a potential threat to the program’s longevity.
“I would hate for High School Quiz Show to become a casualty of this attack on public television,” Olivier-Mason said. GBH, which airs the program, is affiliated with both NPR and PBS. President Trump signed an executive order earlier this month aiming to end federal funding for PBS and NPR.
Olivier-Mason noted that the impact is already visible. “The budget [for taping the program] was clearly tighter this year than the year before because we had one fewer day of taping,” he said. “These stations are always mindful of cost, but I think they’re even more so now, knowing there’s a stated threat against their funding.”
While he remains hopeful, Olivier-Mason admitted that he would not be surprised if the show is eventually cut from the GBH lineup. “I wouldn’t be shocked, just really sad,” he said.
To protect programming like High School Quiz Show, Olivier-Mason encourages the public to take action. “Donating to local stations can make a real difference,” he said. “It would also be worth writing to your state and local representatives.”