The Chicago panel show bridging the media literacy gap, one pop quiz at a time

A shared love of British panel shows and a background in public broadcasting brought Erin Kahoa and Jill Hopkins together for Pop Quiz Hot Shot, a Chicago-based quiz show that makes a game of our blind spots, cultural and otherwise. As the creator-producer and host of PQHS, respectively, Kahoa and Hopkins have guided the show through various iterations, from live performances at the now-defunct Cards Against Humanity Theater and The Gman Tavern to an online-only version in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with writer Alex Blanchette, they are now preparing to bring back Pop Quiz Hot Shot for a limited run (for now), providing some midweek entertainment and inviting journalists and comedians to spend some time in each other’s shoes. 

Ahead of the first of two shows this fall at The Lincoln Lodge in Chicago, The A.V. Club spoke with Hopkins and Kahoa about their game show and its place in the city’s cultural scene. PQHS began almost on a dare; while working at WBEZ, Kahoa often talked to Blanchette about wanting to create his own panel show, until the latter urged him to stop simply talking about it and “do it.” Once he locked in the premise, Kahoa immediately thought of Hopkins—who, among other things, has written for The A.V. Club, hosted The Moth and a show on Vocalo, and is now an on-air personality for WTTW, where Kahoa is the manager of On-Air Fundraising Events and Production—to host the brand-new show. 

“I couldn’t say yes fast enough,” Hopkins shares. “I am similarly kind of obsessed with not just British quiz shows, but just game shows in general.” She describes the multi-generational household she grew up in, with “one good television, and everybody [had] to agree” on what to watch. Game shows, with their reliable scheduling and broad subject matter, were just the thing. That experience probably won’t scan for younger millennials and certainly not Gen Z-ers, but Hopkins emphasizes the importance of communal viewing, which, in this increasingly fragmented TV landscape, is becoming a thing of the past.

Hopkins and Kahoa believe Pop Quiz Hot Shot can similarly bridge gaps. Already, Kahoa says, the panel show has demonstrated “how wonderful it is when you get comedians and journalists in Chicago up on a stage and just ask them to have fun together… to see these brilliant, highly talented forces of nature individuals just kicking back on stage.” Kahoa says he took inspiration from British shows—”they do very well in getting professional funny people to carry a lion’s share of the show, but also bringing in experts, journalists, and sometimes sports-slash-other notable figures”—and his own experience organizing pledge drives, which are like ersatz variety shows.

If you’ve never been, the structure of PQHS will be immediately familiar: Two teams compete across three rounds, and the questions vary from multiple choice to fill-in-the-blank to—get ready to revisit your freshman algebra class—math problems. Each show has a theme that informs the questions asked of the panel, as well as the quiz that’s put to the audience members (which means they’ll have to back up any claims of “I knew that”). At the end of the night, a winner is crowned on stage and in the audience. 

Pop Quiz Hot Shot is nowhere near as high stakes as the inspiration for its title because, as Kahoa puts it, “the best panel show is just an elaborate excuse to hang out with great people. And the more elaborate, the better sometimes, but it is simply an excuse.” The lineups boast plenty of local talent; previous panelists include Reset host Sasha-Ann Simons, author and lecturer Arionne Nettles, and WBEZ weekend anchor Araceli Gomez-Aldana. Comedian Kelsie Huff and New York Times TV critic Margaret Lyons regularly appear as lead panelists alongside Hopkins. The September 12 show will feature Susie An (of WBEZ’s Curious City) and comedian Deanna Ortiz. The October 17 show will feature Araceli Gomez-Aldana and Amy Sumpter (of She’s Crafty). 

But Hopkins and Kahoa also see the potential for the show to help broaden people’s understanding of culture—to bridge the media literacy gap that older generations (particularly Gen X) so often despair of in younger ones, the one that makes them wish there was a present-day equivalent of VH1’s I Love The ’80s/’90s’/2000s. The tone of the show is never hectoring; as Kahoa puts it, it’s more “Oh, man, you were missing out. How much fun did we have because this was a thing!” Even when someone does channel their inner Nelson Muntz, Hopkins says it’s “always done with love.” She reminds us that everyone has blindspots—and finding them is part of the fun of PQHS—which are only exacerbated by the ever-evolving TV and film industries. Growing up, she saw generation-spanning artists like Bob Hope and Betty White on her TV, but now, “We don’t have that wide breadth of celebrity anymore. It’s a very short shelf life.” Part of the goal of PQHS is “celebrating a time where media had a longer shelf life… It’s done with an appreciation for history, but also with a very big heaping spoonful of generational superiority,” she jokes.

As part of the Pop Quiz Hot Shot relaunch, The A.V. Club is giving away three pairs of tickets to the September 12 show at Lincoln Lodge. To enter, just take this pop quiz, hot shot. All entries must be received by 10pm ET/9pm CT on September 6 (one entry per email). Winners will be notified by email on or around September 9.