CHRISTMAS University Challenge viewers all had the same complaint about the latest episode.
Jeremy Paxman was at the helm of the special episode, which saw two teams of distinguished graduates go head to head in a bid to get through to the semi-finals.
Birkbeck-London took on Portsmouth and the teams included lawyer Jolyon Maugham and writer Shabnam Nasimi from Birkbeck, while Portsmouth’s team included mathematician Nira Chamberlain and TV property expert Tayo Oguntonade.
The episode featured a mixture of questions, from hard academic ones to others based more in popular culture such as Star Trek and children’s literature.
While Birkbeck struggled with the latter two subjects in their bonus round, they still managed to pull off a substantial victory over Portsmouth, with a score of 125 to Portsmouth’s less than impressive 30.
Jeremy told the Portsmouth team members: “Well Portsmouth unfortunately we’re going to have to say goodbye to you with only 30 points.”
He then told Birkbeck their score was “just about respectable” as they looked a little sheepish.
Viewers took to Twitter to comment on the relatively low scoring episode, with one writing: “Think I scored more than the contestants on #universitychallenge for a change today.
“It would have been impressive if both teams weren’t such utter s***e.”
Another added: “Just caught up with #UniversityChallenge and wish I hadn’t. Could they not have picked people with general knowledge rather than cos they are worthies? Or fox killers? Embarrassing ffs.”
A third tweeted: “UniversityChallenge It’s so rarefied up there that they can’t answer questions about mundane, everyday stuff.”
University Challenge is available on BBC iPlayer.
