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50 free CNN trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
CNN changed television when it signed on in June 1980 with a promise to report the news around the clock. Few expected an all-news channel to last; within a decade it was where much of the world turned when something big was happening. This quiz covers the people and moments behind that story: the mogul who bet on all-news television, the anchors and interviewers who became household names, the conflicts, rescues and election nights that defined its coverage, and the food, travel and documentary series that came later. A few questions wander into odder corners, including a game show appearance one anchor would rather forget. It suits news junkies, pub quiz teams and anyone preparing a trivia night, with easy openers up front and tougher questions for people who have been watching for decades.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which CNN anchor ended a Celebrity Jeopardy! round $4,600 in the red and lost to comedian Andy Richter?
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer had to be handed $1,000 just to take part in Final Jeopardy!, and he finished the 2009 game with $2,000.
Q 02Which deep-voiced actor recorded the three-word station identification that CNN began airing in 1990?
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, first recorded the line for the network's tenth anniversary, and CNN kept using it for more than three decades.
Q 03Which US president's hospital visit to shooting victim Vernon Jordan was CNN's first news story?
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter was in the White House when CNN signed on in June 1980, five months before he lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan.
Q 04CNN alone could report live from a Baghdad hotel as the bombing began in which conflict?
Gulf War
The Gulf War scoop relied on a private phone line to Amman, which left CNN the only outlet able to report from inside Iraq during the first hours of the bombing.
Q 05CNN was the only news network live on air when which space shuttle broke apart after launch?
Challenger
Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after lift-off in January 1986, and for years CNN's broadcast was the only known footage filmed from the launch site.
Q 06Visitors on the old CNN studio tour began by riding the world's longest freestanding example of what?
An escalator
An escalator listed by Guinness as the world's longest freestanding one carried tourists up through the atrium; it was first built for a Sid and Marty Krofft indoor amusement park.
Q 07Which CNN interviewer appeared in suspenders on the nightly talk show he hosted for 25 years?
Larry King
Larry King earned a Guinness record for hosting the same show on the same network in the same time slot, from June 1985 to December 2010.
Q 08Which chef and author travelled the world eating with locals in the CNN series Parts Unknown?
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain's series won twelve Primetime Emmys and a Peabody Award after it premiered on the network in 2013.
Q 09Which outspoken media mogul, nicknamed the Mouth of the South, launched CNN in 1980?
Ted Turner
Ted Turner also skippered the winning yacht in the 1977 America's Cup and owned the baseball team that took the 1995 World Series.
Q 10On election night 2008, CNN appeared to beam rapper will.i.am into its studio as what?
A hologram
A hologram is what CNN called the effect, though the technology behind it was really tomography; the rapper used his appearance to voice support for Barack Obama.
Q 11In which Southern US city did CNN set up its headquarters when it launched in 1980?
Atlanta
Atlanta housed the network's first studios in the former Progressive Club building on Techwood Drive, a campus CNN began moving back to in 2023.
Q 12What do the letters CNN stand for in the name of the channel launched in June 1980?
Cable News Network
Cable News Network is the full name; co-founder Reese Schonfeld, its first president, later helped establish Food Network.
Q 13Which CNN anchor, a son of Gloria Vanderbilt, guest-hosted Jeopardy! after Alex Trebek's death?
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper joined the network in 2001 and began anchoring his nightly 360° show two years later.
Q 21CNN hosted the June 2024 presidential debate that led which candidate to quit the race weeks later?
Joe Biden
Joe Biden bowed to party pressure and withdrew on July 21, less than a month after sharing CNN's debate stage with Donald Trump.
Q 22Jon Stewart scolded the hosts on air in 2004, months before CNN cancelled which political debate show?
Crossfire
Crossfire was axed in January 2005 by a new CNN president, then revived and cancelled a second time on the tenth anniversary of Stewart's visit.
Q 23Which British former tabloid editor took over CNN's main evening interview slot in 2011?
Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan had edited the Daily Mirror and judged America's Got Talent; CNN cancelled his show in 2014 after a steady drop in ratings.
Q 14CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour was born in London but raised in which capital city?
Tehran
Tehran was her home until she was sent to an English boarding school at eleven; she joined CNN in 1983 as an entry-level assistant on the foreign desk.
Q 15Which practicing neurosurgeon joined CNN in 2001 and became its chief medical correspondent?
Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta was reportedly offered the post of US Surgeon General in 2009 but withdrew his name from consideration.
Q 16Which actor explored his ancestral homeland's food in the CNN series Searching for Italy?
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci has credited CNN's earlier food-and-travel hit Parts Unknown as an influence on the series, which won three Emmys for its hosting.
Q 17Which documentary about Tilikum, a captive SeaWorld orca, did CNN Films pick up after Sundance?
Blackfish
Blackfish earned a BAFTA nomination and drew SeaWorld into a public fight over whether orcas should be kept in captivity.
Q 18Which two-time Oscar-winning actress was married to CNN's founder from 1991 to 2001?
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda married him on her birthday, and he later said she had threatened to leave him if he ran for president.
Q 19Until 2021, a special CNN channel was produced for screens in which kind of public place across the US?
Airports
Airports across the country, 58 of them, carried the service, which was first tested in 1991 at hubs including Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare.
Q 20What was the name of the news streaming service that shut down about a month after launching in 2022?
CNN+
CNN+ went live in late March 2022 and was switched off on April 28, after reports that fewer than 10,000 people a day were using it.
Q 24Which Bravo talk show host replaced Kathy Griffin as co-host of CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast in 2017?
Andy Cohen
Andy Cohen is a close friend of the special's lead anchor, who began hosting CNN's Times Square countdown back in 2002.
Q 25CNN made its name in 1987 covering the Texas rescue of toddler Jessica McClure from what?
A well
A well casing just eight inches wide held the toddler 22 feet down for 58 hours, until a paramedic reached her through a tunnel dug from a parallel shaft.
Q 26David Walker and Lois Hart, who anchored CNN's very first newscast in 1980, were related in which way?
Husband and wife
Husband and wife, the pair took over the broadcast straight after the founder's own on-air introduction on June 1, 1980.
Q 27What is the nickname of the giant touchscreen that became a fixture of CNN's election nights?
Magic Wall
Magic Wall is the nickname of the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, which became familiar enough for The Daily Show to feature it in a segment.
Q 28Which Batman star played CNN producer Robert Wiener in the HBO film Live from Baghdad?
Michael Keaton
Michael Keaton's 2002 film, adapted from Wiener's own book, follows the crew that kept reporting from Iraq's capital as the 1991 bombing began.
Q 29Which CNN prime-time anchor was fired in 2021 for helping his brother, New York's governor?
Chris Cuomo
Chris Cuomo had interviewed his brother Andrew on his own show in 2020; their father, Mario, had also been governor of New York.
Q 30Which former prosecutor hosted a self-titled nightly show on a CNN sister channel from 2005 to 2016?
Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace enrolled in law school after her fiancé was murdered when she was 19, then spent nearly a decade as a prosecutor.