The first AZ Quiz appeared on the screens of Czech Television on January 2, 1997. Since then, more than four thousand episodes have been created, more than 13,000 competitors have passed it, many of them return. And there are more than 200,000 questions. The average viewer of each episode significantly exceeds four hundred thousand viewers.

“The principle of the game is on the verge of genius. It is an excellent mix that combines the involvement of tactics, luck and the fact that it is a daily televised competition,” said current AZ quiz director Ladislav Cmíral about the two-round competition and the winner’s final at the special prize ATM. . Twelve years ago, he succeeded the show’s father and founder, Evžen Sokolovsk.

Some people still think the AZ quizzes are the same, stiff. “There is no reason to make changes, just as there is no reason to change the rules of chess or chess,” comments Cmíral. That there are parodies and jokes about the show? “It’s an honor for us. It means we are part of pop culture, a public event,” he added.

Why does strategic and knowledge competition become his task, with the help of the correct answer to get a square and connect the three sides of the triangle, that is, the playing field, such a phenomenon?

“AZ Quiz is a silly cheap show from Brno. It was originally created in 1995 as entertainment for high school students. It wasn’t until two years later that it became a competition show, and gradually became an integral part of popular culture and television entertainment,” said the moderator. Aleš Zbořil was recently in the podcast cast of Kavka dedicated to the show.

AZ-Quiz is also a board game, a junior variant of television, and even a show that any cultural person in the village can watch. The travel show was prepared by the show’s creators, led by director Cmíral, but its domestic launch was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic. He managed to depict only a few halls or corporate parties.

AZ-quiz has parodies, starred in films (Polski films), appeared in student films, had the most-viewed quotes on YouTube, appeared in literature or was sung by the popular rap band PSH: “Yesterday they invited me to the AZ-quiz, I brought my head and the hole in it…” domestic scene star rapper Vladimír 518. Further in the text he doesn’t comment well on the moderators of the show, but Cmíral takes it as a tax for what phenomenon their show is.

“For some contestants or scenes, it was clear to me beforehand that they would have the potential to be shared on social networks,” said Cmíral. Some examples from YouTube. An article entitled Smallest Wins and Unlucky Petr at the ATM. He won two times five hundred hundred, a total of 1100 crowns. In total, more than 1.2 million views. By the way, the highest payout in this competition was 27,000 and it happened in 2014.

Another example from YouTube. Angry bartender Petra from Brno, over 915K views. Or “Zdeněk’s vulgar nerves” that will be driven by vulgarism – more than two million views. And another example of a parody. AZ presidential quiz with “players” Miloš Zeman and Jiří Drahoš from the Dr. workshop. Bakule has more than 2.4 million views.

The special section is part of the AZ quiz phenomenon. In 2005, an AZ quiz edition was broadcast for Kuře, dedicated to the T Pomozte dětem project. In collaboration with the Art Zone site on T art, several episodes were created in which stars from the domestic club scene competed.

The semifinals of singer Nikola Mucha and leader of the Midi group Lidi Petr Marek had the highest viewership on YouTube (815,000). He won their competition and the entire cultural mini-tournament, although it was clear from his appearance that he was only acquainted with the rules and principles of the game during the game.

The AZ quiz has now become part of Brno’s identity, like a crocodile or a bicycle hanging in the hallway of the Old Town Hall. Therefore, it is not surprising that a special section of the AZ quiz was created as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of television broadcasting from Brno. The premiere will be seen on Saturday, June 26 at 5:50 p.m. on CT1. Pavel Zedníček, Zuzana Slavíková, Josef Polášek and Michal Isteník will test their knowledge in it.

Aleš Zbořil and Eva Machourková will be moderators of the special events for the T Brno anniversary. The two faces who have started their careers since the beginning are in tight competition. In 1998 alone, Roman Svoboda moderated instead of Aleš Zbořil.

But how does it feel to tie so tightly to one show? “The AZ quiz is a part of my life, a matter of the heart, after a long time – to put it mildly. And from a professional point of view, it is also a fun enrichment, “said Eva Machourková. Ten years ago, he also returned to the field he was studying, psychology. “Both professions are connected with contact with people, with communication. I try to make the contestants on the AZ quiz feel happy. They really admire and respect me, and thanks to them I really train my memory and increase my knowledge,” he added.

Aleš Zbořil is an actor by profession. People sometimes think that the name of the competition matches the initials, but that is not the case. It should show that it contains everything from A to Z, all fields.

“It was just our concern at the time. Being the face of AZ quizzes had its advantages, people were watching. But I had the feeling that my face couldn’t appear in other roles,” said Zbořil. He added: “I played other things, but it was a small role that other people could play.”

Did he think he would be behind the counter in the same competition in ten years, he said: “This is getting harder, block shooting is not fun.” “I can still see the screen and I don’t need glasses, so that’s great,” he said.

How does his partner see the future? “Men are said to be mature and women are said to be old. So for a horizon of about ten years, I will see more of it with Aleš, but maybe I will spend more time with the AZ quiz,” says Machourková.

Quiz AZ seeks to cover all areas of human activity. But as director Cmíral says, the least popular topic is botany. These questions were discovered by the whole team led by Pavel Kocman. “Throughout the history of AZ quizzes, I have seen competitors answer very difficult questions time and time again, and conversely, I am surprised to see that trivial questions remain unanswered,” he said.

It is impossible to determine the hardest and easiest questions, everyone has them differently. It depends on education, activity, profession, general view of competitors and the like. And also, of course, at age. “In general, there is a trend that can be traced, but it is not 100% true. Women usually rule flowers and plants in general, where men usually grope. They, in turn, have good geographic knowledge, which makes women weaker. But that doesn’t mean that women who excel in geographic data or men who put the names of all kinds of plants on their sleeves don’t appear,” he added.

AZ’s current quiz decoration begins with the opening of the new T Brno studio in Líšeň, which has been operating since June 2016. At the time of the move, this new set premiered paradoxically from studio Ostrava, where

Will this relatively conservative rivalry change in the future? Maybe not, but. “We wanted to do more VIP episodes, like the last special episode with Pavel Zedníček et al., but maybe also bring in competitors from other personalities, like scientists,” says director Cmíral. It also considers greater involvement of visual elements, both video and photography. “But the basic question must remain textual, that’s the power of the AZ quiz,” he said. As such, the AZ quiz is likely to remain a strong point in the rapidly changing television and media landscape. This is probably what audiences expect from him and why they want to come back to him.