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50 free Blue's Clues trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Blue's Clues trivia questions with answers. Blue's Clues premiered on Nickelodeon in 1996 and quietly rewrote the rules of preschool television, from the paw-print clues and the Thinking Chair to airing the same episode five days in a row. This Blue's Clues trivia quiz covers all of it: the three creators, the 1,000-plus auditions that found Steve Burns, the green striped shirt, the reason Steve left, Joe and Josh, and the whole cast of the Blue's Clues house from Mailbox and Sidetable Drawer to Tickety Tock, Slippery Soap and the spice family. There are also questions on the research behind the show, Blue's Big Musical Movie, Blue's Room, Blue's Clues & You! and Blue's Big City Adventure, plus what Steve Burns did next. It works for a nostalgic 90s-kids night, a family quiz or a preschool teacher's trivia break. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia and cited on the question, so you can see where each fact comes from.
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Q 01On which cable network did Blue's Clues premiere in September 1996?
Nickelodeon
It was the highest-rated premiere of any Nickelodeon show up to then.
Q 02Blue was originally conceived as what kind of animal?
A cat
Kids who watched the pilot 'almost universally' called the show Blue's Clues, so that name stuck.
Q 03What was the show's working title before the pilot testing renamed it?
Blue Prints
Blue is female and, as The New York Times noted, 'never wore a bow'.
Q 04How many clues does Blue leave in each episode?
Three
Each clue is an object marked with one of her paw prints.
Q 05Where does the host sit to work out the answer at the end of each episode?
The Thinking Chair
Malcolm Gladwell called Blue's Clues the 'stickiest' TV show ever made in The Tipping Point.
Q 06What is the name of the transition in which the host jumps into a picture or book?
Skidoo
Co-creator Angela Santomero said it was inspired by the trolley in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Q 07Steve's famous green striped shirt was inspired by what?
Fruit Stripe gum
The producers had originally wanted a female host.
Q 08How many auditions did the producers hold before hiring Steve Burns?
Over 1,000
Burns thought he was auditioning for a voice-over role on a game show.
Q 09Which reason did Steve Burns give for leaving the show?
He refused to lose his hair on kids' TV
His departure sparked outlandish rumours, including that he had died, and even a Time magazine story.
Q 10In the show, where does Steve go when he leaves, handing over to Joe?
To college
Burns worked with Patton to prepare him for the role.
Q 11Who played Joe, the show's second host?
Donovan Patton
He was called Joe because, in a producer's words, 'Donovan was a little too hard on a preschooler's tongue'.
Q 12How many auditions were held to find Steve's replacement?
1,500
Patton had never seen the show before he auditioned.
Q 13Who provides the voice of Blue?
Traci Paige Johnson
Johnson is one of the show's three co-creators and handled its design.
Q 14Which accent did composer Nick Balaban settle on for Mr. Salt after first trying a Brooklyn one?
Q 21What does Mailbox want to be when he grows up?
A comedian
The host sings the Western-style 'Mailtime' song before he delivers each letter.
Q 22How did the network originally schedule new episodes?
The same episode every day for five days
The idea was that repetition let young viewers master each episode's problems.
Q 23Blue's Clues was the first US preschool series in which visual style, using scanned paper and fabric shapes?
Cutout
Fabric, paper and pipe-cleaner shapes were scanned into a Macintosh and animated with cheap software.
French
His fellow composer Michael Rubin voiced Mailbox.
Q 15What are the names of Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's two children?
Paprika and Cinnamon
Cinnamon was voiced in the original series by Nick Balaban's daughter Annalivia.
Q 16Which character is the keeper of the Handy Dandy Notebook?
Sidetable Drawer
The notebook was meant to teach preschoolers to use lists as memory aids.
Q 17What is Tickety Tock?
A pink alarm clock
She loves numbers and schedules and is best friends with Slippery Soap.
Q 18Which colour pairing do the two backyard sandbox friends have?
A yellow shovel and a red pail
Along with Slippery, they were the only main non-human characters with permanent eyebrows.
Q 19Blue's best friend, Magenta, is identical to Blue except for her colour and what?
Glasses
Magenta is shyer than Blue but shares her playful attitude.
Q 20Periwinkle, the kitten from the city, is what colour?
White with dark blue stripes
He likes performing magic tricks, a running thread in Blue's Big Musical Movie.
Q 24How much were the creators given to make the pilot, about a quarter of the network's normal budget?
$150,000
The pilot was thought lost until it surfaced online in September 2023.
Q 25Which of the three creators had previously worked on Sesame Street but disliked its format?
Todd Kessler
He left the show quietly in 2000 after 75 episodes.
Q 26Which children's TV figure did co-creator Angela Santomero name as a major influence?
Fred Rogers
She later co-created Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, the animated Mister Rogers spin-off.
Q 27How many consecutive Emmys did Blue's Clues win between 1998 and 2005?
Eight
By 2002 it was watched by about 13.7 million viewers a week and aired in about 60 countries.
Q 28Which musical legend appeared in Blue's Big Musical Movie in 2000?
Ray Charles
The direct-to-video film has sold more than three million copies since 2006.
Q 29The 2004 spin-off Blue's Room replaced animation with what?
Puppets
It introduced Blue's shy little brother Sprinkles and gave Blue the catchphrase 'Hoop-dee-doo!'
Q 30Who hosts the 2019 revival Blue's Clues & You!?
Josh Dela Cruz
Steve Burns helped cast him and wrote and directed episodes of the new show.