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60 free Emmy Awards trivia questions with answers. How well do you really know television's biggest night? This Emmy trivia quiz covers the whole story of the awards, from the first ceremony at the Hollywood Athletic Club in 1949 and the odd origin of the name to the two rival academies that hand out the statuettes today. You will find easy questions about the shows everyone knows and much harder ones about hosts, records, snubs, the Daytime Emmys and the EGOT club. Streaming-era milestones are here too, including the first online series to win and the record-setting sweeps of recent years. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and Television Academy records, so you can trust the facts whether you are playing solo or hosting a TV-themed quiz night.
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Q 01In what year was the very first Emmy Awards ceremony held?
1949
That first ceremony only honored shows produced and aired locally in Los Angeles; the Emmys did not become a national event until the 1950s.
Q 02Where was the first Emmy ceremony held?
The Hollywood Athletic Club
Tickets cost $5, and only six awards were handed out that night.
Q 03The name "Emmy" is a feminized version of "Immy", industry slang for what piece of equipment?
An image orthicon tube
Engineer Harry Lubcke proposed the name; "Immy" was then softened to "Emmy" to match the female figure on the statuette.
Q 04Which name for the award was rejected because it was also a famous World War II general's nickname?
Ike
ATAS founder Syd Cassyd proposed it after the iconoscope tube, but members wanted something that did not evoke Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Q 05Who designed the Emmy statuette?
Louis McManus
He was a film editor and title designer, and the Academy rejected 47 other proposals before choosing his figure in 1948.
Q 06Who served as the model for the winged figure on the Emmy statuette?
The designer's wife
Her name was Dorothy, and his figure beat dozens of rival designs submitted to the Academy.
Q 07The Emmy statuette shows a winged woman holding what object?
An atom
The winged figure stands for the muse of art and the atom for the electron of science, the two halves of the Television Academy's mission.
Q 08What did the statuette's designer receive at the first ceremony when he was honored for his design?
A plaque
He was given a Special Award for creating the trophy, but oddly not a copy of the very statuette he had designed.
Q 09Who received the very first Emmy Award, for Most Outstanding Television Personality?
Shirley Dinsdale
She was a ventriloquist who performed with her puppet Judy Splinters on Los Angeles television.
Q 10Who hosted the first Emmy ceremony after the scheduled host had to leave town at the last minute?
Walter O'Keefe
He filled in for crooner Rudy Vallée, who had originally been booked to host.
Q 11The Emmy statuette must always be shown facing which direction under the academies' trademark rules?
Left
Copyright notices must also credit both academies as "ATAS/NATAS", and even winners need permission to use the image for promotion.
Q 12The Primetime Emmy statuettes are manufactured by R.S. Owens & Company, based in which city?
Chicago
The same firm made the Academy Award statuettes until 2016, when the Oscars switched to a foundry in Walden, New York.
Q 13Roughly how much does a Primetime Emmy statuette weigh?
Nearly 7 pounds
Each one is made of copper, nickel, silver and gold, takes five and a half hours to produce, and is handled with white gloves to avoid fingerprints.
Q 21Which soap writer's furious 1968 letter to the NYT after an Emmy snub helped create the Daytime Emmys?
Agnes Nixon
That year judges declined to give the new daytime award to anyone, and she wrote that being ignored by the group might be considered a mark of distinction.
Q 22Which city, not New York or Los Angeles, hosted the Daytime Emmys in 2010 and 2011?
Las Vegas
Since 2012 the ceremony has stayed in Los Angeles, mirroring the move of the remaining network soaps to the West Coast.
Q 23Susan Lucci finally won her Daytime Emmy for All My Children in 1999 on which nomination?
19th
Her long losing streak became a running joke; she even mocked it in a 1989 sweetener commercial by shouting about her years without an Emmy.
Q 14In what year did the Television Academy (ATAS) and the National Academy (NATAS) split?
1977
The two groups agreed to share the statuette and trademark, with each administering its own set of Emmy ceremonies.
Q 15Where was the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) formed in 1955?
New York City
It began as an East Coast sister organization and went on to build regional chapters across the country.
Q 16Cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in what year?
1988
The Daytime Emmys followed a year later, opening the door for shows on HBO and other cable networks.
Q 17NATAS launched a brand-new Emmy ceremony in 2022 devoted to which kind of television?
Children's and family shows
It absorbed kids' categories that had been split between the Daytime and Primetime Emmys after streaming blurred the line between the two.
Q 18Since which year have the International Emmy Awards been presented annually?
1973
The ceremony is usually held each November, and entrants need not be members of the International Academy.
Q 19What is the highest honor bestowed by the Television Academy (ATAS)?
The Governors Award
In 2020 it went to Tyler Perry and his foundation, and was presented on the main telecast rather than at the Creative Arts ceremony.
Q 20Who co-hosted the first separate Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony in 1974, alongside Peter Marshall?
Barbara Walters
The show was broadcast from the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center in New York.
Q 24Who became the first woman to win the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host, in 1983?
Betty White
She won for the short-lived NBC show Just Men! and was nicknamed the "First Lady of Game Shows".
Q 25Cloris Leachman is tied for the most acting Emmys ever won by a performer. How many did she win?
Eight
She earned them across 22 nominations, including for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Malcolm in the Middle.
Q 26Who is the only woman to have won an acting Emmy for three separate comedy series?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Her wins came for Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Veep, and her six straight Veep wins set a record for the same role.
Q 27Which actor won seven Primetime Emmys, the most of any male performer?
Ed Asner
Five were for playing newsman Lou Grant, first in a sitcom and then in an hour-long drama, plus one each for Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots.
Q 28Which producer holds the record for the most individual Primetime Emmy wins by any person, with 31?
Sheila Nevins
She ran HBO Documentary Films for decades and produced more than 1,000 documentaries.
Q 29Which actress holds the record for most Emmy nominations without a win, with 18?
Angela Lansbury
Twelve of those nominations were for playing sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote.
Q 30Which star of The Office got six straight Lead Comedy Actor Emmy nominations and never won?
Steve Carell
He was nominated every year from 2006 to 2011 for playing Michael Scott, and later picked up nominations for The Morning Show.