Sunday, June 22, 2008

"Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!"

wwdtm_lineup_final

http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

Listen to Moby's Remix of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me's theme song.

Play today's quiz

Download the podcast

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. On the Web, you can play along too.

The show is hosted by Peter Sagal. When the program debuted in January 1998, Dan Coffey of Ask Dr. Science was the original host, but a revamping of the show led to his replacement in May of that year.

Carl Kasell is the show's scorekeeper. Each week, a panel of three is chosen to participate in the program; frequent panelists include Roy Blount, Jr., Tom Bodett, Amy Dickinson, Adam Felber, Kyrie O'Connor, P.J. O'Rourke, Paula Poundstone, Paul Provenza, Charlie Pierce, Roxanne Roberts, Luke Burbank, Mo Rocca, and most recently, Drew Carey.

Wait Wait… listeners also participate by telephoning or sending e-mails to nominate themselves as contestants. The producers select several listeners for each show, and call them to play games on the air on a pre-taped basis with questions based on the week's news. The prize for winning any game is to have Carl Kasell record a greeting on the contestant's home answering machine. In late 2002, the prize also included the newly published book of the same name as the show, with a not-so-subtle suggestion that it makes a great gift (and so would a dozen). In most cases, the contestants are given a bit of latitude in getting the correct answer, such as getting another guess and a hint should they initially guess wrong, or being credited for being able to identify everything about a newsmaker except their name.

In April of 2008, Wait Wait won a Peabody Award.

No comments: