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50 free New Kids on the Block trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
41 free New Kids on the Block trivia questions with answers. New Kids on the Block went from a Dorchester rehearsal room to a 1-900 hotline taking 100,000 calls a week, then split, then came back bigger. This quiz covers the whole story: Maurice Starr's casting, the name Nynuk, Please Don't Go Girl, Hangin' Tough and Step by Step, the cartoon and the Super Bowl halftime nobody saw, the lip-synch lawsuit, and the 2008 reunion that led to cruises, NKOTBSB, the Mixtape Tour and a Las Vegas residency. There are also questions on Donnie, Jordan, Jonathan, Joey and Danny's solo lives. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who owned a Hangin' Tough cassette, a third are medium and the rest are for Blockheads. Every answer is checked against the group's and members' reference pages.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01New Kids on the Block hail from which Boston neighborhood?
Dorchester
Donnie Wahlberg was 15 when the producer picked him for his rapping, and he recruited school friends to fill out the group.
Q 02Which producer, who had earlier guided New Edition, put New Kids on the Block together in 1984?
Maurice Starr
Born Larry Johnson in DeLand, Florida, he had been fired by New Edition for embezzling funds.
Q 03Which two members of New Kids on the Block are brothers?
Jonathan and Jordan Knight
Jonathan followed his younger brother Jordan into the group.
Q 04What was the group originally called before settling on New Kids on the Block?
Nynuk
The band's official biographer called the name "meaningless"; Rolling Stone guessed it referenced Nanook of the North.
Q 05The name New Kids on the Block came from what?
A rap song Donnie Wahlberg wrote for their first album
The group was signed to Columbia's black music division and first marketed to black audiences.
Q 06Which future movie star was briefly a New Kid before leaving?
Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg and Danny Wood later co-produced Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's debut album, Music for the People.
Q 07How old was Joey McIntyre when he joined the group as its youngest member?
12
Starr had been searching for a Michael Jackson-style singer to replace early member Jamie Kelly.
Q 08What was the group's first hit, a 1988 ballad that reached No. 10 on the Hot 100?
"Please Don't Go Girl"
Columbia reshot its video and mailed copies to thousands of radio stations to show off the group's looks.
Q 09Which 1988 album made New Kids on the Block superstars, spending 132 weeks on the Billboard chart?
Hangin' Tough
It went eight-times platinum and won two American Music Awards in January 1990.
Q 10Which single gave New Kids on the Block their first Billboard Hot 100 number one, in June 1989?
"I'll Be Loving You (Forever)"
More top-five hits from the same album followed, including the title track and "Cover Girl".
Q 11Which of the group's singles became its biggest seller, hitting number one in 1990?
"Step by Step"
Just over half of the songs on the album of the same name were co-written and produced by the members themselves.
Q 12What was the name of the group's top-ten 1989 holiday album?
Merry, Merry Christmas
It went double platinum and produced the top-ten hit "This One's for the Children".
Q 13Which Massachusetts governor declared April 24, 1989 "New Kids on the Block Day"?
Michael Dukakis
He had just lost the 1988 presidential election to George H. W. Bush.
Q 21Which member left the band in 1994 after suffering panic attacks and anxiety?
Jonathan Knight
He also stayed away from the first reunion attempts before agreeing to VH1's Bands Reunited approach in 2004.
Q 22In which year did New Kids on the Block officially reunite and confirm a new album and tour?
2008
Donnie Wahlberg broke the news to CNN in April; the album The Block reached No. 2 that September.
Q 23Which R&B singer featured on the 2008 comeback single "Single"?
Ne-Yo
The Block was the group's first studio album in 14 years.
Where did the 2008 reunion tour open on September 18?
Q 14Roughly how many calls a week did the group's 1-900 hotline receive at its peak?
100,000
Their official fan club had more than 200,000 members, one of the largest in the country.
Q 15Why did TV viewers miss New Kids on the Block's Super Bowl XXV halftime show in 1991?
It was pre-empted for a presidential speech
ABC aired George H. W. Bush addressing the nation on the Gulf War instead.
Q 16Which network aired the New Kids on the Block Saturday-morning cartoon in 1990?
ABC
DIC animated it; the managers in the show were based on the group's real-life producer.
Q 17Which soft-drink company sponsored the group's 1990 Magic Summer Tour?
Coke
They were playing an estimated 200 concerts a year at the time.
Q 18In 1992 the group sued a former associate producer for defamation over what allegation?
That they lip-synched to Maurice Starr's vocals
Greg McPherson, a Berklee teacher, made the claim; sales were already sliding as grunge and gangsta rap took over.
Q 19What did the group shorten its name to in 1993 after splitting from its producer?
NKOTB
Their 1994 album was a musical departure; the group disbanded later that year.
Q 20What was the title of the group's fourth studio album, released in January 1994?
Face the Music
It was their first studio album in almost four years and their last before the split.
Toronto
The Air Canada Centre hosted the first night of New Kids on the Block: Live.
Q 25Since 2009 the group has hosted an annual fan event of what kind?
A concert cruise
The first sailed from Miami to the Bahamas; later ones sold out the day tickets went on sale.
Q 26With which boy band did New Kids on the Block form a supergroup in 2011, merging initials?
Backstreet Boys
Howie Dorough coined the name by combining the two groups' initials.
Q 27What was the title of the group's 2013 studio album, which debuted at No. 6?
10
It was their fifth top-ten studio album in the US; the single was "Remix (I Like The)".
Q 28Which two acts opened for the group on 2013's The Package Tour?
98 Degrees and Boyz II Men
The Total Package Tour with Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul followed in 2017.
Q 29The group's 2019 Mixtape Tour featured 1980s stars including Debbie Gibson and which of these?
Tiffany
Salt-N-Pepa and Naughty by Nature were also on the bill; a 2022 edition added Rick Astley and En Vogue.
Q 30The group's 2022 single "Bring Back the Time" featured which three acts?
Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue
Its video parodies 1980s classics from "Whip It" to "Beat It".