Mastermind Australia: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Famous for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and pervading air of tense expectation, Mastermind is a legendary tournament quiz show beloved around the world, from the UK to Russia – and soon, Australia, when it returns to our screens after 34 years, weeknights on SBS from April.

With highly respected TV host, journalist and self-confessed quiz junkie Jennifer Byrne (ABC's First Tuesday Book Club, Sunday, 60 Minutes, Foreign Correspondent) at the helm, the program places contenders in the iconic Mastermind chair and gives them two tense minutes to answer as many questions as possible on their chosen specialist subject.

Specialist subjects will include everything from Australian Parrots to The Harry Potter Series; John Cusack to The Whitlam Government Dismissal; Wicked: The Musical to Women in Australia Rallysport – and everything in between.

The contenders will advance to a general knowledge round, and the person with the highest combined score for both rounds is declared the winner. Each Friday the weekly finals will see one person advance to the semi-finals and eventually compete against other winners at the end of the season for the prestigious title of Australia's Mastermind.

Series details

• Title: Mastermind Australia
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2019-04-15
• Status in TVmaze: Running
• Network listed by TVmaze: SBS
• Network country: Australia
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 41433

Cast and credited roles

• Marc Fennell — Host
• Jennifer Byrne — Host

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2019-04-15; final listed air date 2019-09-27; episode order: 85.
• Season 2: premiered 2020-02-24; final listed air date 2021-02-19; episode order: 85.
• Season 3: premiered 2021-02-22; final listed air date 2021-06-18; episode order: 85.
• Season 4: premiered 2022-02-21; final listed air date 2022-06-17; episode order: 85.
• Season 5: premiered 2023-02-13; final listed air date 2023-06-09; episode order: 85.
• Season 6: premiered 2024-03-25; final listed air date 2024-07-19; episode order: 85.
• Season 7: premiered 2025-03-24; final listed air date 2025-07-18; episode order: 85.
• Season 8: premiered 2026-04-06; final listed air date 2026-07-31; episode order: 85.

Source and licence

Adapted from Mastermind Australia on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.