The Newsroom Trivia

1. What event dominates the opening episode of the third season of "The Newsroom"?

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: The Boston Marathon bombing

Charlie Skinner, understandably cautious after the Genoa fiasco, waits to run the story until two independent and credible sources have verified the events that took place. This results in News Night's not being first on the air with the story, frustrating to some of the younger, more tech-oriented staffers on the team.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: Don sees a YouTube video of Maggie's rant where she acknowledges her feelings for Jim.

Predictably, a person on the "Sex and the City" tour bus recorded Maggie's rant using her phone. This person has a blog in which she reports her own life events in "the voice" of "Sex and the City" characters. She puts Maggie's speech on YouTube and Maggie's cousin, who doesn't like Maggie but does like Don, sends the link to him. End of Maggie and Don.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: A college student

The unfortunate student asks all panel members to respond to the question, "What makes America the greatest country in the world?" The other three panelists respond with sound bytes and Will tries to pass off the question with a flippant one-liner, but the moderator presses him to give a sincere answer. Will goes into a rant about the multitude of things that make America no longer the greatest country on earth, creating shock waves in the audience and on social media because it is so out of character for him. He is generally one to play to what his audience wants to hear, seeking their approval and ratings.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin is a brilliant writer known for fast-paced, intelligent and witty dialogue and nuanced plots. He has worked in television and films, and has done original screenplays as well as script adaptations. He has stated that after "The Newsroom" he will no longer write for television series, because the tight turnaround times prevent him from doing his best work.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: The Republic of Equatorial Kundu

Riots in Equatorial Kundu are the subject of some classified documents sent unsolicited to Neal Sampat. This sets in motion a story line that runs the entire season.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: Occupy Wall Street

Neal has a bit of a reputation for becoming passionate about topics that are a little off the beaten path for a news program-his earlier preoccupation with Bigfoot, for instance. He learns online of Occupy Wall Street, but the movement is in its infancy and doesn't impress anyone else on the news team; still, Mackenzie gives him permission to look into the group a bit more. He does, and the OWS story becomes a second story line of the season.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: gossip writer

Nina Howard works for a show called "TMI", which is owned by AWM, the parent company of ACN, which produces "News Night". She tosses her drink at Will when he points out, shortly after meeting her, the slimy nature of her occupation.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Jeff Daniels

Daniels plays Will McAvoy, a cable news anchor who is torn between wanting to be loved by his audience and wanting to do the best, most incisive and honest news program ever.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: Rebecca Halliday-Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda both have roles on "The Newsroom", but Fonda portrays the owner of the network. The character of Alexandra Cabot was a District Attorney on "Law and Order: SVU", and Alicia Florrick the title character on "The Good Wife". The character Rebecca Halliday is smart, tough, sexy and irreverent. In this season of "The Newsroom" she is primarily focused on defending Will and Neal from charges of contempt of court and espionage, respectively.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: To get some distance from Maggie and Don

The ACN reporter assigned to the Romney campaign got drunk, jumped from the second floor of his hotel to the hotel pool, missed the pool, and broke his ankle in two places. Jim hears this, goes to Mackenzie and offers-insistently-to cover for the injured reporter. She attempts to dissuade him until he comes clean and says he needs to get away from Maggie and Don for a while. Then she relents, although it's highly unusual for a senior producer with no political reporting experience to take a step like this. A Washington, D.C., ACN producer named Jerry Dantana comes to the New York newsroom to cover for Jim during his absence.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: her infidelity when they were in a relationship

MacKenzie and Will were seriously involved several years prior to the time the show takes place. An old boyfriend came back into her life, and she cheated on Will for months before Will discovered the infidelity and ended their relationship. Will has neither forgotten nor forgiven MacKenzie's perfidy, and for much of the series it simmers just below--or at--the surface of their current working relationship.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Olivia Munn

Olivia Munn is of Asian-American ethnicity, and was born in Oklahoma City in 1980. She has performed in television and movies, including "Magic Mike", "Iron Man 2", and "Deliver Us from Evil". Her character on "The Newsroom" is a self-described geek who does not appear to be totally aware of how gorgeous she is, but who is fully in touch with her braininess.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: She sends a tweet from ACN's account that is in poor taste.

In the middle of the night, very tired after a long day of breaking news, Hallie notices that Neal, who normally administers ACN's Twitter account, hasn't tweeted anything in several hours, so she sends one out herself. Unfortunately, what she tweets is grossly insulting to the Republican Party. Half an hour later she realizes her mistake and takes the tweet down, but of course the damage is done and in the morning the matter goes viral and the Republican National Committee demands an apology from ACN. When Charlie Skinner learns of the tweet, he fires Hallie. This story line is based on an actual event that occurred at MSNBC, according to the show's writer Aaron Sorkin.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: Because of a little African boy who died

Maggie and a colleague, improbably named Gary Cooper, go to Uganda to cover unrest in the region and the American presence there. Part of their itinerary is a stop at an orphanage where American soldiers are building a school. One of the boys takes a shine to Maggie because of her long white-blonde hair, a color he has never seen; he gets her to read his one storybook over and over for most of the afternoon. There is later a mixup about their departure and Maggie and Gary end up at the orphanage overnight. In the night a group of rebels (known as cattle raiders because in addition to wreaking carnage on the civilian populace, they steal cattle) approaches and the orphanage has to be evacuated under fire. Maggie is carrying the boy out to the bus when they are shot at. The child is hit and dies in her arms. Wracked with horror, grief and guilt, when Maggie returns to the States, she hacks off her blonde tresses and dyes the remaining hair flaming red.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: Japanese

When the Fukushima Nuclear Plant accident happens, Sloan is enlisted to speak with a Japanese friend of hers who works at the plant. She does so by phone, at first in the company of other staffers but later alone, off the record. He tells her the threat level, officially reported to be at 4, will actually go to 7, which is catastrophic, comparable to Chernobyl. Sloan later repeats the information obtained off the record on the 10 PM news program, incurring the wrath of the News Division's Director Charlie Skinner.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda has a recurring role as Leona Lansing, owner of Atlantis World Media, parent company of Atlantis Cable News. Leona is a longtime friend of Charlie Skinner, the President of the News Division. They share a basic view of what a news show should be, but Leona also has board members and fiscal concerns that muddy the waters for her, and she and Charlie (as well as other newsroom staff) have ongoing differences when ACN reports politically controversial information about people on the board.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: Reese's half-siblings

Reese's younger half-siblings, fraternal twins Randy and Blair, are about to turn 25, when they will gain control of 45% of AWM's stock. They have partnered with a company, Savannah Capital, which quietly bought up 6% of AWM's stock. The Savannah purchase is discovered by Sloan Sabbith, who has been monitoring AWM's stock values closely because ACN's ratings fell and she was anticipating a corresponding drop in share prices. Instead, the stock gained value because of Savannah's purchase. Randy and Blair intend to sell their 45% to Savannah for billions of dollars, making Savannah a 51% shareholder in AWM, and causing the Lansings to lose control of their company.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: That the US used sarin gas on Pakistani villages while trying to rescue American military personnel, in violation of international law

Jerry Dantana is offered the story first by a political commentator who wanted to curry favor with ACN. He advocates with passion that they follow up on the story and heads a team of reporters who dig into it. Over time, they find several sources that corroborate that sarin gas had been used against civilians.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Webmaster

Patel plays Neal Sampat, a staffer who maintains News Night's website and writes Will McAvoy's blog. He occasionally develops a passionate interest in a story (or, once, a non-story: "Bigfoot is real"), and he gets into some very serious legal trouble in the third season of the series.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: Will McAvoy

Will admits to an investigator from the government that Neal Sampat has told him the source of the classified documents that were received by ACN. He refuses to name the source, however, and ends up being jailed for several weeks, only to be let out after the source commits suicide. Neal, meanwhile, has fled the country to avoid prosecution for espionage.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: the killing of Osama Bin Laden

Will has just consumed a couple of marijuana-laced brownies at the party when the news breaks and the staff is summoned back to the newsroom, but given the enormity of the story, there is no way he will let anyone else report it. Although thoroughly stoned, Will does a masterful job on the air, but his conduct comes back to haunt him later.

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Will McAvoy

Mackenzie and Will were seriously involved with one another several years before the series' time frame. Their breakup was traumatic for both for different reasons and for much of the time period covered by the show, their past often affects their present interactions.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: She sells ACN.

Leona very reluctantly sells ACN to one Lucas Pruitt, who is portrayed from the get-go as a colossal jerk. His perspective has nothing to do with delivering the news with integrity. This exerts crushing pressure on Charlie Skinner, who has to please both his boss and a newsroom staff who are committed to taking the high road in their broadcasts. Charlie, caught between the two factions, suffers a fatal heart attack on the job in the second-last episode of the series.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: Jerry Dantana

From the moment he enters the NYC newsroom to fill in for Jim, it's apparent Jerry intends to do all he can to make a name for himself. He spearheads the Genoa story because even though the news team is having trouble getting enough confirmation that chemical weapons were used, he believes it happened and must be reported. When his interview with the final source fails to get confirmation of the story, he edits the video to make it appear that the source states sarin gas was used during Genoa.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: A "Sex and the City" tour bus

Maggie and Jim spend much time denying their feelings for one another, because they're each involved with someone else. But one night, the stress of denial is too much for Maggie. She and Lisa (Jim's girlfriend-and Maggie's roommate) have drinks, during which Maggie points out to Lisa that Jim is actually attracted to Maggie and not Lisa. Lisa leaves the bar upset. Then Maggie leaves, also upset. On the street she sees a "Sex and the City" tour bus. The tour guide is extolling the show's portrayal of the life of a single woman in New York. Maggie becomes infuriated; she rants at the startled tourists that life for single women in New York is NOTHING like "Sex and the City", and in the midst of the rant she says that being attracted to your roommate's boyfriend is a sad situation. In one of the more contrived plot twists of the series, it turns out that Jim is actually on the tour bus (Lisa loves "Sex and the City" and he is trying to learn more about the show for her sake) and hears Maggie's admission that she's attracted to him. Maggie flees when she catches sight of him. He jumps off the bus and literally pursues her, ultimately finding her. They share a kiss but both pull back because, yep, they're involved with other people...

From Quiz The People of "The Newsroom"

Answer: Charlie Skinner

Sam Waterston plays Charlie Skinner, President of the News Division and the mediator between the network's owners and the newsroom's staff. The position is fraught with peril from both sides every day, and to say that it's stressful is akin to saying that Chernobyl was an annoyance. Charlie suffers a fatal heart attack at work while mediating between the new owner of ACN, who's portrayed as an insufferable jerk, and the staff, who are used to better management than the new guy is offering.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: On a flight that departed from Moscow

Maggie and Jim, along with a myriad of other reporters, are assigned to track down Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the NSA (National Security Agency) to the media and subsequently accepted asylum in Russia. In the course of their travels they revisit their feelings for one another, eventually acknowledging that they are still mutually attracted, providing resolution to a situation that's been unsettled since the beginning of the first season of the show. Whew!

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Two

Answer: The time on the shot clock of a basketball game on TV in the background jumped ahead and back during the video.

The editing of the video is very good, but the basketball game playing in the background shows the time on the shot clock jumping around rather than counting down as it should be.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season One

Answer: The Casey Anthony child murder

Lisa went to high school with Casey Anthony, although they didn't really know one another well. Under pressure to sensationalize their newscasts, the "News Night" staff persuades a very reluctant Lisa to participate in an on-air interview about Anthony, but Maggie and Jim, with the tacit blessing of MacKenzie and Will, supply Lisa with facts about child disappearances and other child murders that didn't attract national attention, giving her the opportunity to speak to the issue with dignity.

From Quiz "The Newsroom": Season Three

Answer: Don Quixote

"Don Quixote" is a particularly appropriate gift, with its theme of striving for the impossible. This forms the seeds of the News Night 2.0 concept-striving for excellence in news reporting rather than just garnering ratings, which underpins the entire series beginning with Mackenzie's hiring in the first episode.

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