Waltham High School Team Makes It To WGBH’s High School Quiz Show

WALTHAM – Four Waltham High School students are about to get their 15 minutes of fame. WGBH’s High School Quiz Show announced the 17 schools from across Massachusetts - including Waltham for the first time - will compete on the 11th season of the public television academic tournament. Hosted by Boston media personality Billy Costa, the broadcast competition tests students’ knowledge in things like math, science, civics, literature, history and current events.

"I am happy to say our team was good enough to make it on the TV show this year," said Mike Russo who is the advisor to team. "We will be filming in January and on the WGBH show in February. It's the first time we made the show."

Seniors Olivia Le, Anna Kraffmiller, Joseph Zeitouny and freshman Aishwarya Ramesh will be practicing a lot with alternate sophomore Abigail Curtis until the big day.

Representing cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth, 14 of the schools qualified based on their scores on a written quiz at the Super Sunday qualifying event held last month at WGBH’s studios. The 15th school qualified by outscoring seven other schools at High School Quiz Show: Extra Credit, a tournament hosted at An Unlikely Story, the Plainville, bookstore owned by Jeff Kinney, author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” A new wildcard approach will fill the 16th and final spot on the broadcast.

“As we begin our second decade, High School Quiz Show coaches and team members are becoming increasingly sophisticated with their preparation and strategy, taking everything from player aptitude and commitment to buzzer and gameplay strategy into consideration,” said executive producer Hillary Wells. “We’re thrilled that the series is fueling a growing network of school-sponsored academic tournaments, contributing to Massachusetts’ success in academic competitions at the national level.”

Among the top 15 schools is last year’s defending champion, Boston Latin School.

Three schools are competing for the first time -- Salem Academy Charter School, Taunton High School and Waltham High School.

The schools that will compete for the state championship title are:

• Acton-Boxborough Regional High School
• Andover High School
• Arlington High School
• Belmont High School
• Boston Latin School
• Brookline High School
• Lexington High School
• Mansfield High School
• Needham High School
• Salem Academy Charter School
• South High Community School (Worcester)
• Taunton High School
• Waltham High School
• Wellesley High School
• Whitman-Hanson Regional High School

The Wildcard match will feature newcomers Tantasqua Regional High School from Fiskdale taking on Weston High School. The wildcard involves the top two highest scoring teams outside of the top 14 from Super Sunday that have not participated in the High School Quiz Show broadcast competition, or have not been on the show in the past five years. Weston High School last appeared in Season 3. The winner of their match, which will air on the February 1 season premiere, determines the final spot in the tournament bracket.

High School Quiz Show begins taping at WGBH in January in front of a studio audience. It will premiere Saturday, Feb. 1 at 6pm on WGBH 2.

You can stream episodes at WGBH.org and on YouTube.