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A University Challenge question left every single contestant baffled as they struggled to correctly guess the answer on Monday night.
The beloved BBC show, which is presented by Amol Rajan, returned for a brand new run of episodes.
Kicking off this week, it was UCL v SOAS as the two universities battled it out to progress to the next round.
However, one question Amol, 42, put to the students left them dumfounded as they tried to give the presenter an answer.
Amol asked them: ‘In what present-day country was a territory that was given the name ‘Island of the True Cross’ by Pedro Álvares Cabral during a trading expedition to India in 1500?
‘Perhaps attempting to avoid becalm waters in the Gulf of Guinea, Cabral sailed south-west under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, claimed the place for the Crown of Portugal.’
A University Challenge question left every single contestant baffled as they struggled to correctly guess the answer on Monday night
The beloved BBC show, which is presented by Amol Rajan, returned for a brand new run of episodes as viewers watched the gameplay unfold
Kicking off this week, it was UCL v SOAS as the two universities battled it out to progress to the next round by putting their best students forward
UCL tried their best to answer, with Doherty blurring out ‘Goa,’ but Amol told him it was incorrect.
Mozayen then had a go, simply saying: ‘Sri Lanka?’ but was promptly told that also wasn’t correct.
Have you managed to correctly guess the answer?
The answer was in fact Brazil.
Meanwhile, BBC viewers were recently reduced to tears as University Challenge host Amol Rajan sobbed over a bereavement ‘too painful to think about’ in an emotional new documentary.
Amol Rajan Goes To The Ganges, released on BBC One last month, followed the journalist and broadcaster on a life-changing trip to his birth country of India.
The hour-long documentary came after the British-Indian presenter lost his father three years ago and struggled to come to terms with it.
Amol did not take his emotional journey alone – his mother accompanied him and provided a steadying presence throughout its ups and downs.
Amol asked them: ‘In what present-day country was a territory that was given the name ‘Island of the True Cross’ by Pedro Álvares Cabral during a trading expedition to India in 1500?’
He continued: ‘Perhaps attempting to avoid becalm waters in the Gulf of Guinea, Cabral sailed south-west under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, claimed the place for the Crown of Portugal’
He noticed on the trip his mother, a practising Hindu, ‘seemed to have an emotional toolkit that I lacked’.
Amol was touched by fans’ admiration of his mother, posting on X during the broadcast: ‘If you’re one of the thousands of people watching this on BBC One and thinking my mum is a legend, I confirm you are absolutely correct.’
To a suggestion she do the famous Thought For The Day segment on Radio 4’s Today programme, which he hosts, he replied: ‘My mum is the most extraordinary person. She’d be fantastic.’
