Cash Quiz Apps

These seem to have become very popular over the last 12 months. Free to enter on your mobile phone and you can win real money - usually around £1,000 a game, sometimes as much as £5,000. The prize is split between everyone who answers all 10 or 12 questions correctly.

We’ve had HQ Trivia, Cash Show, Q Live, Woosh as separate apps. Now a few popping up on Facebook Watch too. Including one Heart Radio branded.

HQ Trivia and Cash Show have stopped UK versions in recent months.

But the thing that amazes me most is the high standards they seem to host their shows too, they’re like mini-TV shows on your mobile. With most carrying no advertising, so they’re clearly a loss making project for now (the plan must be to get a user base then sell advertising accordingly?).

Anyone else playing these?

i was playing the UK version of HQ Trivia as late as last month.

That must be the early one - 3pm ET, 8pm for us.

As for me, I love playing these games. Q Live is my favourite and I have made a few hundred quid from it. Overall, they're very fun and they even do themed games (Saturdays are decade nights, 7pm is Spelling, 10pm is news of the day).

We’re taking a break as we get ready for our brand new show @HQWords. Stay tuned!

— HQ Trivia UK (@hqtriviauk) December 5, 2018

As mentioned above that’s now the US version. From comments online it looks like the UK version was stopped quite abruptly. But with no obvious money coming in, it’s only so long you can fun these games. There’s a lot of other costs involved such as presenter, crew, question writers and tech to develop the app.




Q Live is definitely growing when other games seem to be disappearing. It’s run by News UK, so clearly a lot of money to back it there.

Confetti is the name of one of the Facebook games and it appears to be an international idea from Facebook themselves as they’ve commissioned versions in 6 countries. The UK version is being produced by Thames & they are using an actual studio, instead of a green screen set up.

Sian Welby, host of the other FB Watch game Heart Triple Play was a host on HQ Trivia UK so I don't think there's been anything lost from that aspect.
Hosts are the key point that keep that sense of familiarity to the show.
Q Live have:
-Sam and Amy from Virgin Radio (another News UK member)
-Marina from Super Casino
-Pandora from Kiss Radio
-Comedian Charlie Baker
-Leeds United presenter Emma Jones
-CITV presenter Sam Homewood

They each bring their own quirks which I think is what makes them unique.

<insert obligatory "they should hire Greggles" comment here>

Chuck Thomas from Quizmania fame is the executive producer of News UK’s Q Live!

Charlie Baker isn’t a million miles off Greggles in style either.

Some people could be think about how long it will be for HQ Quiz or what ever it's called to be on tv. Hell, this could even replace Jackpot 247 since thats ending soon.

There are (valid) reasons why Q Live isn’t an option - But thanks for thinking of me!

— 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗴 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 (@GregScottTV) January 2, 2019

As mentioned above, this may be something to do with ex-Quizmaniac (I thought of that myself) Chuck Thomas being in charge?

I believe it might be to do with the News UK link, rather than Chuck himself.

This is all going off rough memories from the best part of a decade ago, so don't take this as concrete fact, but I believe Greg was pulled off air on his Sun Quiz Live debut. His first show was promoted for weeks, and on the evening itself, he had presented a few teasers live from the studio before he was due to go on air. About 15 minutes before the scheduled start time, the teasers stopped happening, and the show started about 30 minutes late with another presenter, and Greg's name was never mentioned again on any Sun Quiz Live broadcast.

I don't want to speculate on the reasons behind Greg never making it to air, but I'd assume that's why Greg can't do Q-Live.

I wonder what the rest of the Quizmania team are up to these days? did enjoy watching that

The rise and fall of HQ is rather intriguing. As mentioned up the thread, HQ Trivia UK was pulled suddenly at the start of December - it'd been messed around quite a bit, with its 3pm games (the ones that had brought it attention in the first place because whole offices were downing tools to play) scrapped without warning a couple of months beforehand and the jackpots cut. Reading between the lines, I think the presenters were messed around too; it was them who ended up telling players that HQ UK had been canned.

Of the two main HQ UK presenters, Sharon Carpenter had already worked in the US and on the US version, but they had quite a breakout star in Beric Livingstone - hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things for him. As mentioned already, there was also Sian Welby of Heart, and Kathryn Goldsmith who then went to QVC. I'm just pleased I managed to win a whole seven quid out of it before it was pulled.

The US version has suffered from falling user numbers, a story sadly compounded by HQ's founder managing to cancel himself rather abruptly before Christmas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47136687

The whole thing just seemed a bit of shambles behind the scenes, the usual story of a venture-capital fuelled app hoovering up huge piles of money without the first clue of how it was actually meant to make money. The US version made some money through paid guest appearances (this happened a few times in the UK), sponsorship and TV-style spot ads in the pre-game countdown, but the UK version seemed to rely on people paying for extra lives (the cost of which rocketed shortly before closure).

One of the publicity interviews for HQ UK implied it was made out of New York City, but that doesn't seem right.

I expect News UK can subsidise Q Live until it can wash its face, but I wouldn't be surprised to see HQ fade away in the coming months.