MTV Trivia
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70 free MTV trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
MTV went on air at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, and for the next two decades it decided what teenagers watched, wore and listened to. This MTV trivia quiz covers the whole run: the launch and the five original VJs, the 'I Want My MTV' campaign, the fight over Black artists that Michael Jackson's videos finally broke, and the moon-man statue handed out at the Video Music Awards. It then moves through the shows that defined each era. You will find questions on Yo! MTV Raps, Headbangers Ball, 120 Minutes, Remote Control, Unplugged, Liquid Television and Beavis and Butt-Head, on The Real World and Road Rules, TRL and Carson Daly, Cribs, The Osbournes, Punk'd, Pimp My Ride, Laguna Beach, Jersey Shore, 16 and Pregnant, Catfish and Ridiculousness, plus the VMA moments everyone still talks about, from Madonna in 1984 to Kanye and Taylor in 2009. The 70 questions run from easy nostalgia to genuinely hard network history. Every answer was checked against the documented record, so the answer key is safe to use for a pub quiz, a party or a 90s-themed game night.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which space shuttle's launch footage opened MTV's first broadcast?
Columbia
Columbia's April 1981 liftoff opened MTV that August 1; the nearest signal was across the river in New Jersey, so the channel's own staff took buses to a bar there to watch.
Q 02Which song's clip was the first ever played on MTV?
"Video Killed the Radio Star"
"Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles was picked to open MTV because its title summed up the channel's idea, and in February 2000 MTV aired it again as its one millionth video.
Q 03What did the initials MTV originally stand for?
Music Television
MTV stood for Music Television; the words were dropped from the logo in 2010 as the channel shifted toward reality shows.
Q 04Which MTV dating game show did Jenny McCarthy co-host in the mid-1990s?
Singled Out
Singled Out had 50 singles compete for a date with one contestant; when Jenny McCarthy left in 1997 for a sitcom of her own, MTV brought in Carmen Electra to replace her.
Q 05Which of these was one of the five original MTV VJs?
Martha Quinn
Martha Quinn had only just graduated from NYU, her screen experience limited to TV commercials, when MTV put her on air as one of its five launch-day hosts.
Q 06Which MTV series, launched in 2000, had celebrities give tours of their homes?
Cribs
Cribs toured stars' houses from 2000, though not every one was theirs: Robbie Williams later admitted that the home he showed off had been rented from actress Jane Seymour.
Q 07The MTV Video Music Awards statuette depicts what?
An astronaut on the Moon
An astronaut on the Moon was among the first images MTV ever aired, so the awards borrowed it; long nicknamed the Moonman, the trophy is now officially the Moon Person.
Q 08Which venue hosted the first VMAs?
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall staged the first VMAs on September 14, 1984, with Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler hosting; the night's big winner was no pop idol but jazz veteran Herbie Hancock, with five awards.
Q 09Which song did Madonna perform at the very first VMAs in 1984?
"Like a Virgin"
"Like a Virgin" had Madonna step off a giant wedding cake in a bridal gown; when a shoe slipped off she dived to the floor to cover for it, and the improvised roll is what made the performance famous.
Q 10Which video lost the first Video of the Year VMA to The Cars' "You Might Think"?
"Thriller"
"Thriller" lost to one of the first videos to use computer graphics, with singer Ric Ocasek popping up as a fly and in a bathroom mirror; the Viewer's Choice award, at least, did go to "Thriller" that night.
Q 11Which rapper won Video of the Year at the 2002 VMAs?
Eminem
Eminem won for "Without Me", whose lyrics mock Moby by name; at the same show Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviewed Moby, then was shoved away by Eminem's bodyguards.
Q 12Which act's stop-motion video won nine awards at the 1987 VMAs?
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" took nine awards and the Video Vanguard made it ten for the night, yet he collected none of them in person: he was on tour in Germany.
Q 13The VMAs' lifetime-achievement Video Vanguard Award was later renamed after which artist?
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson treated his videos as short films with stories, which won him the Video Vanguard in 1988 and later put his name on the award.
Q 21Which punk band released "M.T.V. – Get Off the Air" in 1985?
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys used the track to accuse MTV of sedating the public; it sits on Frankenchrist, the 1985 album whose explicit Giger poster put singer Jello Biafra on trial.
Q 22Ted Turner's short-lived rival music channel was bought by MTV in 1984 and turned into what?
VH1
VH1 launched on January 1, 1985 in the slot of Turner's Cable Music Channel, which had lasted just over a month before he sold it to MTV Networks.
Q 23Which was the first video shown on MTV Europe when it launched?
"Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits
Q 14Which comedian earned a "lifetime ban" from MTV after his 1989 VMA routine?
Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay ran through his adult nursery rhymes while introducing Cher at the 1989 VMAs; MTV banned him for life, though its own news site later called the routine rather tame.
Q 15Which animal did Britney Spears dance with at the 2001 VMAs?
An albino snake
An albino snake, a Burmese python, hung around Britney Spears's neck as she sang "I'm a Slave 4 U", while a live tiger stayed locked up at the back of the stage.
Q 16At the 2003 VMAs, Madonna kissed Britney Spears and which other singer on stage?
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears opened the 2003 VMAs with Madonna and Missy Elliott in a medley that revisited Madonna's number from the very first VMAs, and she kissed both on the lips.
Q 17Whose acceptance speech did Kanye West interrupt at the 2009 VMAs?
Taylor Swift's
Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's Best Female Video speech for 'You Belong with Me' to argue Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' was one of the best videos ever.
Q 18Which advertising slogan, launched in 1982, had rock stars telling viewers to call their cable company?
"I Want My MTV!"
"I Want My MTV!" borrowed a cereal slogan, "I Want My Maypo!", and had Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend demand the channel on air so that fans would phone cable operators who had refused to carry it.
Q 19Which video by the King of Pop is credited with breaking MTV's early "color barrier"?
"Billie Jean"
"Billie Jean" reached MTV on March 10, 1983; CBS Records chief Walter Yetnikoff said he had threatened to pull all of his label's videos to get it played, a story MTV's programmers deny.
Q 20Which funk star publicly accused MTV of racism in 1983 for refusing to play his video?
Rick James
Rick James made the charge after MTV passed on "Super Freak"; MTV said it simply kept to a rock format, though the executive who turned the clip down later called it too racy.
"Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits followed Elton John switching the channel on in Amsterdam in 1987; it was a pointed choice, since the song opens with Sting singing the channel's own slogan.
Q 24Where did MTV set up its first live Spring Break broadcasts in 1986?
Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach, Florida was MTV's base for live shows in March 1986, eight hours a day, built around belly-flop contests and regular suntan reports.
Q 25Who became the first regular host of MTV's weekly hip-hop video show when it reached the US in 1988?
Fab 5 Freddy
Fab 5 Freddy took his weekend episodes of Yo! MTV Raps out of the studio and on location after Run-DMC had hosted the pilot; Doctor Dré and Ed Lover later fronted the daily show indoors.
Q 26Which host fronted Headbangers Ball from 1990 until the show ended on MTV in 1995?
Riki Rachtman
Riki Rachtman was the metal show's third host and saw it out; by the time it ended in 1995, grunge and alternative rock had crept onto its playlist.
Q 27Which MTV game show hosted by Ken Ober gave early TV roles to Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn?
Remote Control
Remote Control, played on a set dressed as Ken Ober's basement, strapped its contestants into recliners and hauled the losers out through a breakaway wall.
Q 28120 Minutes, which ran on MTV from 1986 to 2000, was dedicated to which genre?
Alternative music
Alternative music was the whole brief of 120 Minutes, which gave Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video its world premiere in 1991 and carried on at MTV2 once its MTV run ended.
Q 29Whose 1992 Unplugged album became the best-selling live album of all time?
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton's Unplugged won Album of the Year, and its "Tears in Heaven", written after the death of his four-year-old son Conor, took both Record and Song of the Year.
Q 30Which David Bowie song did Nirvana cover on MTV Unplugged?
"The Man Who Sold the World"
"The Man Who Sold the World" became so tied to Nirvana that Bowie grumbled about young fans praising him for covering a Nirvana song whenever he played it.