UK Quiz Results, Week of 14-18 September: UCL Win University Challenge, Pointless Opens Series 36
Quick answer: UCL beat the Royal College of Art 210–115 on University Challenge, the Merseyside Eyes knocked out the Marvins 21–20 on Only Connect, and Taz Modi won the Mastermind heat on Neil Young with 18 points.
Five teatime quizzes a day, one BBC Two block, and the week now closed. Here it is show by show, with the gaps left as gaps.
| Day | The Chase, 5pm ITV1 | Tipping Point, 4pm ITV1 | Pointless, 5.15pm BBC One | Countdown, 2.10pm C4 | BBC Two, Monday only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 14 | Series 18 — outcome not confirmed | Series 13 — outcome not confirmed | Series 35, Ep 44 — outcome not confirmed | Aired — Marcus Brigstocke in Dictionary Corner | University Challenge: UCL 210, Royal College of Art 115 Only Connect: Merseyside Eyes 21, Marvins 20 Mastermind: Taz Modi 18 (winner) |
| Tue 15 | Series 17, Ep 19 — repeat; outcome not confirmed | Series 13 — outcome not confirmed | Series 35, Ep 45 — outcome not confirmed | Aired — Brigstocke | — |
| Wed 16 | Series 18, Ep 72, made 2024 — repeat; outcome not confirmed | Series 13, Ep 91, made 2023 — repeat; outcome not confirmed | Series 35, Ep 46 — outcome not confirmed | Aired — Brigstocke | — |
| Thu 17 | Series 18 — repeat; outcome not confirmed | Series 13 — repeat; outcome not confirmed | Series 35, Ep 47 of 47, last of the series — outcome not confirmed | Aired — Brigstocke | — |
| Fri 18 | Series 18 as listed — outcome not confirmed | Series 13 as listed — outcome not confirmed | Series 36, Ep 1 of 46 — aired, now on iPlayer; outcome not confirmed | Aired — Brigstocke's fifth and last day | — |
| Sat 19 – Sun 20 | Not on ITV1 | Not on ITV1 | Not on BBC One | Not on — weekdays only | — |
The gist: all three Monday BBC Two results are now public, and one of them was decided by a single point. ITV1 ran older series of both teatime quizzes on all five days. Pointless shut Series 35 on Thursday and opened Series 36 on Friday with no gap week.
Did anyone beat the Chaser this week?
We cannot tell you, and neither can anyone else. ITV publishes no result for a daytime quiz — not on the ITVX episode page, not in the TV guide, not on the official YouTube channel, whose most recent full-length clip dates from early August.
That is why every Chase cell above says "not confirmed" rather than a score. We would rather leave a blank than invent a final chase. Each night's slot details are in Monday's line-up, Tuesday's, Wednesday's, Thursday's and Friday's.
What did ITV1 actually put out at teatime?
Repeats, all week. ITV's own guide files Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday under Series 18 of The Chase, and Tuesday under Series 17. Series 19 launched on 7 September, so not one new episode reached the 5pm slot in the week of the 14th.
Tipping Point is more uniform still: Series 13 on all five afternoons. ITVX put dates on two of them — Wednesday's Chase was a 2024 production, that day's Tipping Point a 2023 one. If a contestant looked familiar, that is the answer.
Who won University Challenge on Monday?
UCL, by 210 points to 115, against a Royal College of Art side the BBC billed as the first team from that institution ever to qualify. It was the first result of the week with a published, checkable score.
The match went out at 8.30pm on BBC Two on Monday 14 September. The following Monday, Southampton edged Queen's University Belfast 200–195, the closest first-round match of the series so far — the full week is in the 21–25 September results. How the three BBC Two formats are scored is set out in our Monday night quiz guide.
What happened on Only Connect and Mastermind?
Only Connect: the Merseyside Eyes won 21–20 and the Marvins went out. The Eyes led 4–3 after the connections round, 9–3 after sequences and 19–13 after the walls, and the Marvins nearly closed the whole gap on Missing Vowels. It was an elimination match, so the one point ended the Marvins' run.
Mastermind: Taz Modi won Heat 8 with 18 points, one ahead of Charlotte Long. Long had the best specialist round of the night on Rory McIlroy and needed nine in general knowledge to win; she scored eight.
| Contender | Specialist subject | Specialist | General knowledge | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taz Modi | Neil Young | 7 | 11 | 18 — winner |
| Charlotte Long | Rory McIlroy | 9 | 8 | 17 |
| Gustav Adler | British brutalist architecture | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| Lauren Church | Sally Ride | 4 | 6 | 10 |
The BBC lists contenders and subjects in advance but never the winner, so both results come from the two quiz blogs that write up every episode after broadcast. They agree on every score above.
Who was in Dictionary Corner this week?
Marcus Brigstocke, every afternoon from Monday to Friday. Channel 4's own episode pages name him on all five 2.10pm shows, alongside Colin Murray, Rachel Riley and Susie Dent.
Countdown books its guest a week at a time, which makes it the one teatime quiz whose line-up you can check in advance and afterwards. Katharine Merry had the chair the week before. From Monday 21 September it is Neil Delamere.
What did Pointless do on Friday?
It started again. Thursday's episode was number 47 of 47 and ended Series 35; Friday's 5.15pm show was Series 36, episode 1 of 46, and it is on iPlayer for more than a year. Alexander Armstrong presented with Lucy Porter beside him, her third night running.
Series 36 is one episode shorter than the run it replaces. The changeover dates and the iPlayer details sit in our Pointless Series 36 guide.
Was anything cancelled or moved?
Only on Wednesday, and not to the quizzes. ITV1 gave its evening to the Carabao Cup from 7.30pm, which cost the soaps two episodes but left the 4pm and 5pm slots alone. The week's full grid sits in this week on UK quiz TV, and our sister site covered the soap side of that Wednesday.
On BBC Two, Only Connect returns on Monday 21 September with Double Features against Accrual World. Everything else keeps its slot — next week's grid has the days and times, and more explainers sit under our UK quiz guides.
Were any of the six on at the weekend?
None of them, on their own channels. Every show in the grid above runs on a weekday slot, and neither broadcaster shifted one into Saturday or Sunday.
BBC One gave Saturday teatime to The Hit List at 5.55pm and then the Strictly Come Dancing launch show at 7.25pm, with Antiques Roadshow taking Sunday at 8pm. BBC Two's weekend went to sport: rugby league and golf on Saturday evening, the cycling world championships on Sunday afternoon and more golf at 6pm.
ITV's guide lists no Chase and no Tipping Point on ITV1 on either day. The two did air — as archive celebrity editions on ITV Quiz, the free-to-air repeats channel — so a weekend Chase you stumble across is an old one, and nothing in it belongs to the current run. Monday puts the weekday pattern back: Tipping Point at 4pm and The Chase at 5pm on ITV1, Pointless at 5.15pm on BBC One, Countdown at 2.10pm with Neil Delamere in Dictionary Corner, and the BBC Two block from 7.30pm. The full grid is in next week's line-up.
How do we mark a cell confirmed?
Two independent sources have to agree before a score replaces the words "not confirmed". For University Challenge that is easy: the BBC episode page carries the match, and the independent results archive and the Wikipedia series page both give UCL 210, Royal College of Art 115.
For the ITV1 teatime pair there is no second source, and usually not even a first one, so those cells stay open rather than being filled from a viewer's memory of the final chase. Where a broadcaster publishes an episode number or a guest instead of a result — Pointless, Countdown — that is what the grid carries.
Questions readers ask
Why does this page say "not confirmed" so often?
Because the broadcaster has not published the outcome. We fill a cell only when two sources agree.
Who won Only Connect on 14 September?
The Merseyside Eyes, 21–20 over the Marvins.
Who won Mastermind on 14 September?
Taz Modi, specialist subject Neil Young, with 18 points.
Do you print the questions?
No. The clues and answers belong to the production companies, so we stick to times, episodes and scores.
Where can I watch the episodes back?
ITVX for The Chase and Tipping Point, BBC iPlayer for Pointless and the Monday BBC Two block, Channel 4 for Countdown. The nightly run-downs are on the Chase page.
Sources
- BBC Two schedule, Monday 14 September 2026 and the University Challenge episode page
- University Challenge 2026–27 first-round results and the independent University Challenge results archive (both give UCL 210, RCA 115)
- BBC One schedule, Friday 18 September 2026 (Pointless 5.15pm, Series 36 Episode 1 of 46) and the iPlayer episode, both checked 18 September
- Channel 4's Countdown episode guide (first-shown dates 14–18 September and the Dictionary Corner guest for each)
- BBC One schedule, Saturday 19 September and Sunday 20 September 2026, plus the BBC Two Saturday schedule (no quiz in either weekend line-up), checked 19 September
- ITV TV guide for 19 and 20 September 2026 (ITV1 rows carry neither teatime quiz; the celebrity editions sit on ITV Quiz), checked 19 September
- ITV TV guide, ITV1 rows for 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 September 2026 (series numbers), checked 17 September
- Jack's Online Writings (Only Connect round-by-round and Mastermind Heat 8 scores) and Life After Mastermind, Heat 8 (subjects and split scores), both checked 28 September