Trivia / Pop Quiz Hotshot

• Ashcan Copy: The reason the episodes that were produced exist, according to some; Indiegogo were preparing to investigate Channel Awesome, since it appeared they weren't producing any of the promised shows, so the series pilot was put up, and the show went for another 11 episodes, very short of the announced 40. This was just enough to legally cover Channel Awesome and get Indiegogo off their backs.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Unlike other Channel Awesome videos that he appears in, Brad Jones hasn't uploaded the pilot episode to his own website. The first time he publicly acknowledged the show was at a panel at the 2015 Midwest Media Expo, where he made fun of it.
    Brad: I heard that went over great. *laughs* Everyone needs a Battlefield Earth on their resume!
  • Brad's not the only one who mocked it. On a Barney^note Rob and Doug's dad/Tamara/Malcolm/Fard panel, while they said it was a work in progress, they were laughing about how badly it was received and Doug was saying that having to clean the set floor (because it was dirty) made him and the other guys feel light-headed for weeks.
  • Tamara made it pretty clear in both pilot and in the con panel that being Miss Stockholm sucked, though she likes the episodes following.
• Executive Meddling:
  • About twenty five minutes into this panel, Mr Walker discussed the maligned set of the game show, and that Michaud literally went to Jim and said “we're gonna do a quiz show, build me a set”, and because they had no idea what it was going to be like, Jim built the thing and if they'd known, would have probably made a different one.
  • It's obvious that the final round was stacked in Doug's favor, with him likely having helped write the questions. This effectively meant that the show could control the number of winners and the number of cash prizes.
• Method Acting: According to Ethan, the guy playing Ed kept it up offset and Doug had to ask him to stop.
• Prop Recycling: The contestant that gets punished for not buzzing in fast enough when Spazzies appear will usually be forced to wear part of a costume seen in a previous Nostalgia Critic episode (e.g. Rita Repulsa's headdress).
• Quietly Cancelled: After episode 11 was released in late December 2015, no new episodes were released, with no Channel Awesome media produced since acknowledging its existence.
• Reality Subtext: The pilot has essentially everyone being kidnapped by Brad and forced to be on the show. According to Barney, Michaud was the only one interested in a game show, nobody else, and he ordered a set from Jim with very little detail given.
• Recycled Script: Episode one: Brad kidnaps people because his want to have a proper game show was refused. Episode two: Critic kidnaps people because he's horribly lonely. A rare version where the recycling is improved, as unlike the first example it doesn't come out of nowhere.
• Schedule Slip: After seven weeks of consistent episodes (to a positive reception as well), Rob said that it had to fall to the wayside while they focus on Critic again, and they'll "probably" go back to it after October. Doug's post was more reassuring. Lampshaded in Dirk's Diggler (when it came back), with Critic saying “madness doesn't die, it just takes a break”.
• Series Hiatus: It takes a few, one example being being put on hold after CA's January copyright strike and them struggling to get things back on track.
• Troubled Production:
  • After raising $90,000 in viewer contributions through Indiegogo, Channel Awesome promised forty episodes (along with Awesome Comics and the still-unproduced The Gaming Gauntlet); only seventeen were produced because their studio was not sound-dampened. Many episodes recycled contestants and questions.
  • The games were rigged for the contestants, but at one point the cue cards were accidentally switched causing Doug to win and split a $100 gift card.
  • Channel Awesome failed to release the show after a year and a half, but was forced to release the first episode when Indiegogo threatened to investigate them for fraud. The show was panned by everybody — including the Walker brothers — and it was cancelled after twelve episodes (the legal minimum required of them by Indiegogo).
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to Mr. Walker, the first few times they did the pilot, Tamara was in real iron chains and having a miserable time, so he got her the fuzzy pink set to be nice.^note Doug is apparently still disturbed by his father getting a woman handcuffs.
  • According to LordKaT, Channel Awesome considered pitching the show to a television network.
• Working Title: Referred to as "Retro Pop Culture Challenge" in the Indiegogo campaign, with a note saying that the title would probably change.

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