Tonight: Nanuet Students to Appear on MSG Quiz Show

Turn on your TV tonight to see some familiar faces. Five students and two academic advisors are participating in “The Challenge," MSG Varsity’s award-winning quiz show. As "The Challenge" celebrates its 15th anniversary, the new season kicks off with a first round match-up between Nanuet High School and John Jay High School airing at a new time, 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 11 on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s iO TV, Channel 14.

The Nanuet team includes:

• Brendan Dang
• Kevin Tsao
• Niki Miller (Captain)
• Skyler Dale
• Allison Boyd (Alternate)

The academic advisors are:

• Dr. Jack Gremli
• Pat Dudeck

"We were excited to go to the “Challenge” for the experience," said Dudeck.

“The Challenge” includes 192 high schools from the entire tri-state area. A new match-up can been seen every Sunday through Friday at 6:30 p.m., on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s iO TV, Channel 14. 

Participating schools advance through a series of elimination rounds, with one school in each region being crowned regional champion and winning $2,500 for their school. The winning teams from each region go on to “The Challenge” Championship where they square off in a Tri-State Showdown. The school awarded the title of Tri-State Champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final “Challenge” Championship game will receive $500.

“We’re proud to celebrate academics on MSG Varsity through ‘The Challenge’ and to provide these extremely bright students a platform to showcase their talents with their communities,” said Theresa Chillianis, MSG Varsity’s General Manager. “Good luck to all of this year’s teams.”

Back for his third season as host of “The Challenge” is Jared Cotter, host of “MSG Varsity’s Talent Show” and a popular semi-finalist from American Idol.  Cotter will serve as moderator, testing competing teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science in front of a live studio audience.

“Each season I am blown away by the students’ intelligence and their wide array of knowledge in so many diverse categories,” said Jared Cotter. “I’m really excited to get the season started and to see which teams are going to bring it.”

For more information on “The Challenge,” please go to www.msgvarsity.com.