He reached the hot seat on his 3rd attempt, having appeared as a fastest finger first contestant on two occasions during Series 15 in early 2004.

contestants Diane Hallagan and Lee Warburton, Simmons won the final series of Radio 4 quiz Masterteam in 2005/06.

He was a semi-finalist on Mastermind and also reached the final of the 2008/09 series of the radio programme Brain of Britain, but was defeated by Geoff Thomas.

in 2008, where he won Series 1, defeating fellow future Egghead David Rainford in the semi-final and Shaun Wallace in the final.

About being an Egghead, he told The Jewish Chronicle, "It’s the best job in British quizzing and to get paid for doing something you love is just the icing on the cake.