"The Challenge" High School Quiz Show

Hewlett High School's team is participating in this year's "The Challenge" high school quiz show.  

They face Valley Stream Central High School on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. on MSG Varsity, Cablevision's iO TV, Channel 14.

“The Challenge” is back and celebrating its 15th anniversary of showcasing the best and brightest high school students from the tri-state area. The new season of MSG Varsity’s award winning quiz show features a first round match-up between      Valley Stream Central High School and Hewlett High School airing at a new time, 6:30 p.m., Sunday, February 5, 2012 on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s iO TV, Channel 14. 

“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.”

The Hewlett team is represented by Jeremy Tarica, David Kaufman (Captain), Benjamin Kramer, Asaf Chandali and Valery Zajkov (Alternate). The academic advisor is Christine Abajian.

“The Challenge” includes 192 high schools from the entire tri-state area — Long Island (with Nassau and Suffolk as two distinct regions), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Connecticut.  This season, Long Island will be represented by 32 high schools from Nassau County and 32 high schools from Suffolk County.

A new match-up can been seen every Sunday through Friday at 6:30 pm, 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.

For more information on “The Challenge,” please log onto www.msgvarsity.com.