First Watch Glitch: The Rise And Fall Of HQ Trivia: CNN Films Doc Presses Play On A Wildly Popular Gaming App That Exploded And Then Imploded

EXCLUSIVE: It was the live trivia game that everyone wanted to play. If they could make the app work.

HQ Trivia became a sensation shortly after its release for mobile platforms in 2017, promising cash prizes to users who answered a series of timed questions correctly in quick succession (eg “What was the first animal to be successfully cloned?” answer). : sea urchins ). But it eventually imploded, caused by constant technical problems and power struggles between key personnel.

The documentary by CNN Films Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia examines what happened to the app that at one point drew a million or more people to its trivia contests at once. CNN Films released a trailer for the documentary today and announced that it will premiere on Sunday, March 5 on CNN. trailer hitch will be streamed live to pay TV subscribers starting Monday via CNN.com and CNN OTT and mobile apps or CNNgo (where available) and 6 platforms.

Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ TriviaProduced by Left/Right for CNN Films and HBO Max, directed by Salima Koroma (Dreamland: Burning Black Wall Street).

“HQ Trivia was meant to ‘revolutionize’ television. But what happens when the people running it – “the smartest guys in the room” – don’t really know what they’re doing?” Koroma said in a statement. “The CEOs who make the Vines and the WeWorks and the Twitters are considered the rock stars of our time. But many of them are only naked emperors. It’s a bit absurd. And I wanted that absurdity to be felt throughout the film.”

In a release, CNN Films said: “[T]His latest documentary chronicles the tech-driven rise and Fyre-like demise of HQ Trivia, the revolutionary “game show on your phone” app that went viral, took over the country, then crashed and burned to the ground. The global live gaming sensation has attracted millions of users daily to its incredibly fun trivia challenges and cash prizes, attracting celebrity fans such as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Neil Patrick Harris, Jimmy Kimmel and Kelly Clarkson. But his success was shattered by corporate disputes, casting and a tragic death. Told through the eyes of former host Scott Rogowsky and other first-person actors inside and outside the company, the film documents the real-life comedy and tragedy that took place in front of and behind the cameras.

Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development, CNN Worldwide, said, “HQ Trivia was a national sensation, capturing the zeitgeist and disrupting everyday habits to an obsessive degree — and then, in a in no time, it was over. CNN Films has developed an ideal venue for projects that uncover the stories behind the headlines, and we are thrilled to be working with the talented Salima Koroma to peel back the layers of this seminal pop culture moment.”

Left/Right’s Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver are executive producers for CNN Films, along with Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton. Dylan Abruscato and Brandon Teitel are co-executive producers. The film is produced by Olivia Snyder-Spak and Kevin Vargas.