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50 free Burn Notice trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Burn Notice trivia quiz covers all seven seasons of the USA Network spy series, from the Nigeria job that got Michael Westen burned to the Irish cottage where he ends up raising his nephew. There are questions on Fiona's IRA past and vanishing accent, Sam Axe's Navy SEAL history and his Chuck Finley alias, Madeline's chain-smoking, Jesse Porter's accidental burn, and the season-by-season antagonists: Phillip Cowan, Carla, Management, Strickler, Gilroy, Simon, Vaughn, Anson, Card, Riley and James. Production trivia is here too: the Coconut Grove Convention Center set, the second-person voice-over that plays like a training film, the Edgar Award for the pilot, the CIA officer who became a script advisor after telling Matt Nix how accurate the show was, and the Sam Axe prequel movie Jeffrey Donovan directed. Cast questions cover Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless and Coby Bell. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series, its characters and its cast, and each question quotes the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which cable channel did Burn Notice originally air from 2007 to 2013?
USA
In 2010 it was cable's second most-watched scripted series with 6.7 million viewers, behind Royal Pains.
Q 02Who created Burn Notice?
Matt Nix
His pilot script won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television Episode Teleplay.
Q 03Who plays burned spy Michael Westen?
Jeffrey Donovan
He later played mobster Dodd Gerhardt in Fargo and appeared in both Sicario films.
Q 04In which city is Michael stranded after being burned?
Miami
It is his hometown; if he leaves he will be hunted down, so he stays and works as an unlicensed private investigator.
Q 05In which country was Michael in the middle of an operation when he was burned?
Nigeria
He was beaten and kidnapped, then woke up in Miami with his assets frozen and his contacts gone.
Q 06What is distinctive about the show's narration?
Second-person voice-over framed as spy tips
Michael's commentary plays like a training or orientation film for fledgling agents.
Q 07Who plays Fiona Glenanne, Michael's ex-girlfriend?
Gabrielle Anwar
She was born in Surrey and had earlier played Margaret Tudor in The Tudors and Sam Black in Press Gang.
Q 08Which organization was Fiona formerly a member of?
The IRA
She serves as Michael's firearms and explosives supplier; Matt Nix said of her that 'violence is foreplay'.
Q 09What changed about Fiona between the pilot and the second episode?
She dropped her Irish accent for an American one
She also changed her style of dress to distance herself from her past and blend in.
Q 10Who plays Sam Axe, Michael's best friend?
Bruce Campbell
He is best known as Ash in the Evil Dead films; his prequel movie was directed by his Burn Notice co-star.
Q 11In which branch of the military did Sam Axe serve before retiring?
Navy SEALs
He retired as a Commander in 2005; in the pilot he is also secretly an FBI informant reporting on Michael.
Q 12What alias does Sam Axe use most often on jobs?
Chuck Finley
It is the name of a California Angels pitcher he liked to bet on, and coincidentally of a coworker of Bruce Campbell's father.
Q 13How does the perpetually broke Sam usually get by in Miami?
Schmoozing rich older women
They provide food, shelter and nice cars; he is also 'the guy who knows a guy'.
Q 21Which season-three villain, played by Garret Dillahunt, committed the crimes Michael was framed for?
Simon Escher
Gilroy was breaking him out of prison; Simon later reveals a coded Bible listing everyone who burned Michael.
Q 22In season four, what object contains the coded list of the people who burned Michael?
A Bible
Telecom magnate John Barrett dies chasing it, and Jesse's old handler Marv is killed once it resurfaces.
Q 23Which Terminator 2 actor played telecommunications magnate John Barrett in season four?
Robert Patrick
Michael is forced to kill him to save himself and loses the coded list in the process.
Q 14Which Cagney & Lacey star plays Michael's chain-smoking mother?
Sharon Gless
She earned the show's first acting Emmy nomination in 2010; Madeline notes in the pilot that Michael missed his father's funeral 'by eight years'.
Q 15Which character, played by Coby Bell, joins the team in season four after Michael accidentally burns him?
Jesse Porter
He briefly considers killing Michael when he learns the truth, then stays with the team even after his burn is lifted.
Q 16What is the name of Michael's younger brother, killed by a sniper in season six?
Nate
Seth Peterson played him; Michael and Fiona later raise his son Charlie in Ireland.
Q 17Which West Wing actor played Phillip Cowan, the man who wrote Michael's burn notice, in season one?
Richard Schiff
Michael finds him only to see him killed, and the season ends with a call from a mysterious woman.
Q 18Which Battlestar Galactica actress played Michael's season-two handler, Carla?
Tricia Helfer
She keeps Michael in line by threatening his family, and kills her own wrangler Victor in the finale.
Q 19Which Frasier actor appeared as the shadowy leader known only as 'Management'?
John Mahoney
He arrives by helicopter after the season-two dock shootout and takes Michael for a ride over the ocean.
Q 20How does season three open?
Michael swims back to Miami
He is met by Detective Michelle Paxson, freed to pursue him now that Management has lifted his protection.
Q 24Who plays Anson Fullerton, the psychopath who co-founded The Organization and blackmails Fiona?
Jere Burns
He tricks her into confessing to the British Consulate bombings; she eventually surrenders to the FBI to free Michael.
Q 25Which Scrubs actor plays Tom Card, the CIA agent who trained Michael, in season six?
John C. McGinley
Card turns out to have hired the sniper who killed Michael's brother; Michael eventually kills him, triggering a CIA manhunt.
Q 26In the season-six finale, from what does Michael force a confession out of CIA hunter Olivia Riley?
A boat under Coast Guard fire
Riley, played by The Wire's Sonja Sohn, had been working with a drug cartel to bring Michael down.
Q 27How many episodes did the seventh and final season have?
13
Seasons four through six had 18 apiece; the first had 12.
Q 28In the series finale, where are Michael and Fiona living as they raise Nate's son Charlie?
A small town in Ireland
They must be presumed dead, and Michael is 'posthumously' given a star on the CIA Memorial Wall.
Q 29Who sacrifices herself in the finale to protect Charlie and Jesse from James's men?
Madeline
Michael then shoots James, who blows up his own building trying to take Michael and Fiona with him.
Q 30What was the title of the 2011 prequel TV movie centered on Sam Axe?
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe
Set two years before the pilot, it follows Sam's last mission in Colombia, with Pedro Pascal as a rogue commandante.