''Mastermind'' is an Australian television quiz show aired on the

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...

(SBS). Produced by BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand, the series is based on the original British game show of the same name created by Bill Wright. The show features an intimidating setting with challenging questions on specialised subjects of the contestant's choice, followed by a

general knowledge General knowledge is information that has been accumulated over time through various media and sources. It excludes specialized learning that can only be obtained with extensive training and information confined to a single medium. General know ...

round.

History

The program was first announced in March 2019, with Jennifer Byrne hosting the first two seasons of the show. The show was temporarily hosted by Marc Fennell for a period of about two weeks after Byrne had a fall that left her with injuries to her wrist and face. The finals of the second season were delayed by nearly a year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, returning in February 2021. Fennell took over as host of the show from the third season, which began that same month. Two seasons of '' Celebrity Mastermind'' have also been produced. The sixth season of ''Mastermind Australia'' premiered on 25 March 2024. The first week features all four living past champions of the series as well as other TV quiz champions competing for a bespoke trophy dedicated to season 2 winner Jacqui Markham, who passed away in 2023. A seventh season was confirmed at the SBS Upfronts event in October 2024, set to air in 2025.

Format

Standard episodes consist of two rounds. In the first round, each contender will have two minutes to answer as many questions as possible about their chosen specialist subject. In the second round, contestants face 90 seconds of

questions. There are four contestants in each episode from Monday to Thursday, and the winner of each episode competes in the weekly final on Friday, in order to advance to the semi-final. Weekly finals episodes place the general knowledge round first, followed by a ''Slow Burn'' round (from Season 2 onwards), unique to the Australian version. In ''Slow Burn'', each contestant must pick a category from the four available. They are then presented ten clues, one at a time. The contestant can only make one guess. The earlier they answer, the more points they earn; ten points if they answer after the first clue, minus one for each clue they hear afterwards before answering. Zero points are earned if the answer is wrong. The grand final episode of each season is 60 minutes long, instead of the usual 30 minutes, and consists of three rounds: A new specialist subject for each contestant, a ''Slow Burn'' round, and finally a general knowledge round. The winner of the grand final, and the season, is awarded a handcrafted, etched glass bowl, made by indigenous artist Dennis Golding.

Episodes

Champions

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{Mastermind Australian English-language television shows 2019 Australian television series debuts Television shows set in Sydney Special Broadcasting Service original programming 2010s Australian game shows 2020s Australian game shows