New Mastermind season with Marc Fennell as quizmaster to premiere February 22

The stage is set as Walkley-winning journalist, author and interviewer, Marc Fennell, begins his new role as quizmaster for the new season of Australia’s Mastermind starting Monday 22 February.

Famous for its challenging questions, intimidating setting, and tense air, Mastermind places contenders in the iconic Mastermind chair and gives them two minutes to answer as many questions as possible on their chosen specialist subject.

This season’s specialist subjects range from famous personalities to sports event to history, geography and arts – and everything in between. Some of the specialist subjects in the initial weeks will include Britney Spears (1998 – 2008), 1956 Melbourne Olympics, The Matildas, International Female Leaders 2020, Australian Female Publicans, Bitcoin, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Marc Fennell said: “I think Mastermind is a genuine insight into Australia’s psyche. Every one of us has that one obsession, that one thing we know and love above all things. The best part of being the quizmaster is seeing the wild diversity of obsessions and topics that the contenders bring with them. But make no mistake, it is the toughest quiz show on Australian television. I’ve been both a fill-in host and celebrity contender on Mastermind Australia, I know first-hand how intimidating it can be. While I may be the one holding the questions, I truly marvel at the gumption of the contenders. It’s going to be intense.”

SBS Commissioning Editor, Josh Martin, said: “We’re excited that the quizmaster baton will be passed on to SBS’s own Marc Fennell, no stranger himself to the Mastermind hosting role, who will bring his own unique style and energy to this one-of-a-kind quiz show.”

It’s set to be tense, thrilling, at times humorous, and, above all, entertaining.

Mastermind S3 premieres Monday 22 February 6pm on SBS. The series will air 6pm weeknights and will be available after broadcast on SBS On Demand.