PULTEVENT
How to show a quiz on a TV: 7 round types that work on a big screen
Boxing Day, a little after four. Eleven people in a living room built for six, a cousin reading questions off a phone in a voice that nobody past the kitchen door can hear, and a stack of printer paper going round with a pen that only works if you shake it. The TV is right there, sixty-five inches of it, showing a muted football replay. The quiz is happening on a phone screen the size of a playing card.
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Putting that quiz on the TV changes the whole room. Everyone reads the same question at the same moment, the person reading stops being a bottleneck, and the scores sit where people can argue about them properly. You need three things: a laptop, the cable that connects it to the TV, and a way for people to answer that isn't paper.
With PULTEVENT the laptop runs the quiz in a browser, the TV shows the questions, and players answer on their own phones after scanning a QR code on the screen. Nothing to install on the phones. They do need internet, either the house Wi-Fi or mobile data, so pass the Wi-Fi password round before the first question rather than during it.
7 quiz rounds that look right on a TV
1 Classic multiple choice
Question on the TV, four answers under it, a countdown. Players tap on their phones and the correct answer lights up when you reveal it.
How to run it. Keep answer options short enough to read from the back of the room. If it needs a second line, rewrite it.
It's the round everyone already understands, so it gets the nervous players going.
2 Picture round
A photo fills the screen: a zoomed-in landmark, a blurred album cover you shot yourself, a family car from 1994. Players guess from their phones.
How to run it. Use your own photos where you can. Family pictures turn a general-knowledge quiz into a personal one.
On paper, picture rounds mean printing and stapling. On a TV, you just drop the image into the question.
3 The game-show board
A grid of categories and point values, the classic board game-show format. Teams pick a square, the question opens, you judge the answer out loud. In the console it's called Super Smarts.
How to run it. Make one category about the people in the room. It gets picked first every time.
Choosing the square gives teams a bit of strategy and a lot of excuses to heckle each other.
4 True or False
One statement on screen, two buttons on the phone. Quick, loud, and a good palate cleanser between heavier rounds.
How to run it. Mix one or two absurd-but-true facts in with plausible fakes. The groans are the point.
It takes about four minutes and wakes the room up after food.
5 Timeline
Players put events in order: when a song came out, when grandad got his first car, which invention came first. The screen shows the right order at the end.
How to run it. Mix public history with family history. The kids know the phones, the grandparents know the dates.
Different generations are good at different questions, so the round evens out.
6 Baby photo round
Childhood pictures of people in the room come up one at a time, and everyone guesses whose they are.
How to run it. Collect the photos quietly, by private message. One leak in the group chat ruins the round.
It's the round people take pictures of the TV during.
7 Scoreboard and podium
Team points live on a scoreboard you update as you go, and the evening closes with an awards screen: special prizes, then third, second and the winners.
How to run it. Invent a couple of daft special awards. "Best wrong answer" is a reliable one.
A quiz without a proper ending just fizzles out into people checking their phones.
One cable, one TV
An HDMI lead from the laptop to the TV is the whole technical setup in most homes.
Phones as answer pads
Players scan a QR code and tap A, B, C or D. The scores add themselves up.
Your questions, your language
Write the quiz in the builder in plain English, about your family or your office.
Same setup at a venue
A function room projector takes the same cable. The quiz doesn't care how big the screen is.
At home: getting the picture onto the TV
Most laptops have an HDMI port. If yours only has USB-C, you need a USB-C to HDMI adapter, and it's worth checking that the laptop's USB-C port carries video, since not every one does. Plug the cable into the TV, then use the TV remote to switch to that HDMI input. The laptop should notice the TV within a few seconds.
In the laptop's display settings, choose to extend the desktop rather than duplicate it. That way the TV is a second screen: the question lives there, while the laptop keeps the host console with the scores and your next question. On a Mac or Windows laptop this is one setting, and you only set it once per TV.
If the edges of the picture look cut off, the TV is overscanning. Look in the TV's picture settings for an option called something like screen fit, just scan or 1:1, and turn it on.
At a venue: ask these four questions first
Where is the HDMI input for the screen or projector, and how far is it from where I'll stand? Is there a spare socket there? Does the sound from the laptop go into the room speakers, and through which cable? What is the guest Wi-Fi called, and does it make people log in through a web page first?
That last one matters more than it sounds. Some venue networks send every new phone to a sign-in page, and people give up on it. If the signal inside is decent, mobile data is often the simpler answer, and you can put the Wi-Fi details on screen for anyone who needs them.
Bring your own HDMI cable of at least five meters, plus the adapter if you need one. Venue cables have a way of being just too short or just gone.
Getting the phones in
When everyone is seated, show the QR code on the TV and give people a minute. Point the camera, tap the link, type a name or a team name. No app, no account. The phones follow their own language, so a guest whose phone is set to Spanish sees the buttons in Spanish; you can switch that off if you'd rather everyone saw the same thing.
Leave the code up a little longer than feels necessary. There is always one uncle who finds his reading glasses just as you're about to start.
"Is it the square thing?"
"It's the square thing."
Writing the questions
You write the quiz in the quiz builder, question by question, with pictures if you want them. It takes about an evening for a quiz of five rounds. The ready-made quiz decks in the platform are mostly in Russian at the moment, so for an English-speaking room plan on writing your own, which for a family or office quiz is the better option anyway.
Aim for questions that are answerable by at least a third of the room. A quiz where nobody knows anything is not a quiz, it's an exam.
If you already have the quiz as slides
Plenty of people arrive with a finished slide deck. You can load a PPTX file and play it from the console, full screen on the TV, clicking through as usual. It won't collect phone answers, but it means last year's deck isn't wasted, and you can run it between the phone rounds as a picture round or answer reveal.
Pacing a quiz on the telly
Five rounds of eight to ten questions is plenty for an evening. Put the loud rounds (True or False, the board) after food, and the gentle ones (timeline, baby photos) before it. Keep a short break screen with a countdown between halves so people know when to come back from the kitchen.
Try the whole thing on your own TV first. The free 3-day demo needs no card, which is enough to build a quiz and run it twice. The full version is a one-time license, no subscription, with pricing on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to show a quiz on a TV
- 1
Write the rounds in the quiz builder, adding your own photos where they help.
- 2
Connect the laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable, using an adapter if the laptop only has USB-C.
- 3
Switch the TV to that HDMI input and set the laptop to extend the display, not duplicate it.
- 4
Open the stage window on the TV and keep the host console on the laptop.
- 5
Check the Wi-Fi or mobile signal with your own phone, then show the QR code so players can join.
- 6
Run the rounds, keep the scoreboard updated, and finish with the podium screen.
FAQ
Can I show a quiz on a smart TV without a laptop?
Do the players need an app?
What if someone doesn't have a smartphone?
Does the sound come out of the TV?
Can I use a projector instead of a TV?
Are there ready-made English quizzes?
Can relatives abroad join in?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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