Kelly Lawler|USA TODAY
It's 9 p.m. Do you know where your phone is?
If you're one of the 1.5 million or so people tuning into daily games of HQ Trivia, then it's probably glued to your hand as you frantically try to remember which format video gameMortal Kombatdebuted in or who broke the U.S. record for most cumulative days in orbit.
HQ Trivia is the app of the moment, a live, mobilegame show (daily at 9 ET and weekdays at 3 ET) that you can watch on your phone and play along for real money.Anddespite the format,it's the kind of appointment viewing that harkens back to must-see TV.
The app was released for Apple iOS devicesin August by Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll(who created Vine), and became available on Android phones in January. Itfeatures a host (usuallythe goofyScott Rogowsky) asking 12 multiple-choicetrivia questions of increasing difficulty that must be answered within seconds. If you get one wrong, you're out, but if you get all 12 right you split the prize money with anyone else who also knows all 12 answers. The prize pool, usually $2,000, occasionally goes as high as $20,000.
It's been the subject of breathless media write-ups and (already) fierce backlash for its glitchy, laggy performance andterms of service that make it difficult for winners to walk away with actual cash. (Initially, users had to bank at least $20, but the app tweeted Friday that it was removing the minimum.)
Whether you love it,hate it, or hate-watch it, it's undeniable that the app has tapped into something.Viewers tune in on a set schedule, night after night, to see Rogowsky and compete against friends and strangers for their share ofthe prize. Even celebs, including Jimmy Kimmel, who has guest-hosted, and Ellen DeGeneres—who featured a viral winner on her daytime show —are playing along.It's the kind of loyalty that is starting to feel rarefor TV shows in our fragmented culture.
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So what makes HQ so addictive? It helps that it's so watchable. Rogowsky is a great find, and he has precisely thejokeyenergy required to anchor the 15-minute show. His overzealous and often manic delivery of questions, puns and punchlines is part of its appeal, despite those occasional technical difficulties. You almost imagine he gets the stream working again through the sheer power of his voice. When he calls the audience "HQties," it's endearing, not creepy.When substitutes fill in,the game lacks momentum and becomes almost unwatchable, despite their best efforts.
HQ figured out how to make game shows relevant again, siphoning the best parts of ABC's onetime top-rated hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?(each question could be your last) andJeopardy!(the randomness of the topics makes you feel like an expert at times). The fact that it must be played at a set time gives it an old-school TV feel, recalling the erabefore DVRs, on-demand and streaming made our favorite content available whenever we want.
Players can still keep watching the broadcast after they've lost, and while many quit right away in anger, there's still fun to be had watching Rogowsky's bitsall the way through Question 12.With its popularity growing, the pot is split among more players, reaping individual paydays as little as a few dollars, but there's still an allure to just being smart enough to win.
The appalso figured out how to make the game "social," and not just in the empty "here's a corporate hashtag" kind of way. It's more fun when you play withfriends who might know an obscure answer you'd miss, making it feel like pub trivia you can play from the comfort of your couch or on your lunch break. There's also schadenfreude to rival the sense of community. The game routinely features so-called "savage" questions that hundreds of thousands of players miss (a particularly controversial question about the most popular plural for "octopus" still rankles), and there's a unique pleasure to being one of the smartest few who makes it through.
The app may not be the revolution the current television era needs (although anindustry publicationsuggestsHollywood is paying attention), but it's fun, colorful and if you play justone more time,maybe you'll actually win.
I've never won, mind you (I've only made it to Question 9), but I'm still trying.
