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This 2000s TV trivia quiz has 90 free questions with answers and covers the decade that turned television into appointment viewing: the HBO dramas (The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under), the network hits everyone talked about the next morning (Lost, 24, Grey's Anatomy, House, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Prison Break), the comedies that still fill group chats (The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm), the teen dramas of The WB and The CW, and the reality boom of Survivor, American Idol, The Amazing Race and The Osbournes. Questions range from easy ones anyone who owned a TV in the 2000s can answer (which street do the Desperate Housewives live on?) to Emmy records, cancelled-too-soon shows like Firefly and Pushing Daisies, and details only real fans will remember, like the call sign of a certain Battlestar commander. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia or a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it, so you can settle arguments as well as start them.
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Q 01Which band's song plays over the abrupt cut-to-black final scene of The Sopranos in 2007?
Journey
The 2007 finale's sudden black screen led many viewers to think their cable had failed.
Q 02Tony Soprano runs a Mafia crew based in which US state?
New Jersey
James Gandolfini's Tony is introduced as a mob boss who suffers panic attacks and starts seeing a psychiatrist.
Q 03How many Primetime Emmy Awards did The Sopranos win over its six seasons?
21
The show ran 86 episodes on HBO from 1999 to 2007 and also collected five Golden Globes.
Q 04David Simon's HBO drama The Wire is set in which American city?
Baltimore
Each of the five seasons introduced a different city institution alongside the police, from the docks to the schools.
Q 05Season two of The Wire shifted its focus to which part of the city?
The port and its dockworkers
The docks storyline followed the blue-collar stevedores' union and its slide into smuggling; schools, City Hall and the newspaper each got later seasons.
Q 06Before creating The Wire, David Simon worked as what?
Police reporter
Simon spent years covering crime for the city's daily newspaper, and his book Homicide had already been adapted for NBC.
Q 07The survivors on Lost were passengers on which Oceanic Airlines flight?
815
The show ran 121 episodes over six seasons on ABC, from September 2004 to May 2010.
Q 08The doomed Oceanic flight in Lost was travelling between which two cities?
Sydney and Los Angeles
The crash site was a mysterious island somewhere in the South Pacific, which is why the survivors' rescue hopes rested on ships passing far off course.
Q 09Lost won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for which of its seasons?
Its first
It took the top drama prize in 2005, having debuted the previous September as one of ABC's biggest launches in years.
Q 10Who adapted the BBC's The Office for NBC in 2005?
Greg Daniels
The US version debuted as a mid-season replacement and outlasted the British original by more than 180 episodes.
Q 11The Dunder Mifflin branch in The Office is located in which Pennsylvania city?
Scranton
Steve Carell's Michael Scott is the branch's regional manager, though the show was shot in California rather than Pennsylvania.
Q 12How many Primetime Emmys did the US version of The Office win in total?
5
Its lone Outstanding Comedy Series win came in 2006, for the second season.
Q 13Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer works for which fictional Los Angeles agency in 24?
Counter Terrorist Unit
Each season plays out over 24 consecutive hours in real time, complete with the on-screen ticking clock.
Q 21In Gilmore Girls, Rory chooses which university, her grandfather's alma mater?
Yale
Harvard had been her lifelong dream, which made the switch a big plot moment at the end of season three.
Q 22Gilmore Girls premiered in October 2000 on which network?
The WB
It finished its run in 2007 on The CW, the network formed when The WB and UPN merged.
Q 23The O.C. is set in which wealthy Orange County community?
Newport Beach
Josh Schwartz's Fox drama ran from August 2003 to February 2007 and made Adam Brody's Seth Cohen a star.
What is the name of the hybrid holiday Seth Cohen celebrates in The O.C.?
Q 1424 premiered on Fox in which month, just weeks after the September 11 attacks?
November 2001
The pilot's plane-explosion sequence was reportedly trimmed for its debut given the timing.
Q 15What was the original name of the hospital in Grey's Anatomy?
Seattle Grace
It was later renamed Seattle Grace Mercy West and finally Grey Sloan Memorial as the show ran on for two decades.
Q 16The title Grey's Anatomy is a pun on Meredith Grey's surname and what?
A classic medical textbook
Henry Gray's 1858 textbook is still in print, which makes the pun work for every generation of medical students.
Q 17Dr. Gregory House leads his diagnostic team at which fictional hospital?
Princeton–Plainsboro
Hugh Laurie's misanthropic genius ran on Fox for eight seasons, from 2004 to 2012.
Q 18The character of Gregory House was loosely modelled on which fictional detective?
Sherlock Holmes
The homage runs deep: House lives at apartment 221B and his best friend is named Wilson.
Q 19Who created the medical drama House?
David Shore
Shore, a Canadian former lawyer, later created The Good Doctor, another series about a brilliant but unconventional physician.
Q 20Lorelai and Rory Gilmore live in which fictional Connecticut town?
Stars Hollow
The town square set on the Warner Bros. lot had earlier stood in for Mayberry-style small towns in other shows.
Chrismukkah
The show marked the holiday with a special episode in every one of its four seasons.
Q 25Who narrates Arrested Development?
Ron Howard
The Happy Days star was also an executive producer, and later appeared on screen as a fictionalised version of himself.
Q 26Which streaming service revived Arrested Development after Fox cancelled it in 2006?
Netflix
Netflix licensed new episodes in 2011, years before original streaming series were commonplace.
Q 27Who won the first season of Survivor in 2000?
Richard Hatch
The season, filmed in Borneo, ended with a 4–3 jury vote and made Hatch reality TV's first villain-turned-champion.
Q 28The American Survivor was derived from a reality show originally made in which country?
Sweden
Expedition Robinson, created by Charlie Parsons, premiered in 1997, three years before Jeff Probst hosted the CBS version.
Q 29Who co-hosted the first season of American Idol alongside Ryan Seacrest?
Brian Dunkleman
Seacrest went solo from season two onward and hosted every season of the show since.
Q 30Kelly Clarkson beat which runner-up in the first American Idol finale in September 2002?
Justin Guarini
The two co-starred in the 2003 movie From Justin to Kelly, which was a notorious box-office flop.